SSX: Deadly Descents
by Matthew94
Summary: This is a story about the famous Snowboarding game SSX Deadly Descents. The story follows the SSX veterans and members, taking on the enemy who has bailed on SSX, Griff Simmons. Griff will try to make it hard for Team SSX to win, but main focus is on Mac Fraser and his perspective while Zoe leads Team SSX. Go through the eyes of Mac and read how the story will play, will SSX win?
1. Gather Team SSX

_**Hello everybody, Matthew here with a new message. I have full inspiration on how my story will play out, expect new chapters at least Sunday or Monday. It is all thought out and I think people will at least like my idea.  
**_

_**One more thing, I made Kaori speak English because it seemed the best thing to do, she will not lose her Japanese personality but she will focus more on English. Later in the story, she will speak Japanese, a friend of mine will help me to translate it, if it's not good, let me know and I'll try to correct it**_

* * *

It has been several years since the last SSX competition, everybody in the circuit went their own path on starting a new career, other then snowboarding. The only one who still hasn't finished snowboarding was Zoe Payne.

Zoe was known around the world for winning almost every event she was in, or also known as The Demon of the Mountains. But after a while, people started to think and even place Zoe on the second place of the best snowboarders around.

Her snowboard skills got challenged everytime when she finished a race. People told her that she was very good, but that she had to outride the one who surpassed her on the ranklist, Griff Simmons, her old rival from the third competition and The Tour. Zoe saw Griff on the news bragging about his victory and turned the volume up.

"Tell us Griff, you have shown to be an awesome snowboarder, even surpassing the one and only Demon, Zoe Payne. What is your secret of obtaining that title?" the journalist asked.

"It was my intensity of being the best that makes it possible for me too win, but the main reason is just that... i'm way better then Zoe Payne, haha." Griff said to the the journalist.

Zoe then turned her television off from pure anger and threw the remote controle away.

"Damn Griff, he has always been on my nerves. It's time to put him back in his place!" Zoe said challenging when she walked away.

* * *

After getting tired of hearing that Griff was actually better than her, she decided to challenge him for an all out race to decide who is the best. She called him up from the number she received from the recent tournament he participated.

"Griff, this is me, Zoe Payne." Zoe said.

"Zoe, what a suprise, what is it? Sad that I took your rank away from you?" Griff said teasing.

"I challenge you to a race, best two out of three to decide who is the best, you or me. "

"A race huh? Sounds good, when do you want to do it?"

"Right now!"

"Oke then, which mountain or course?"

"Garibaldi in Canada, you have your own helicopter as well, meet me there to settle this."

"You're on, give me a couple hours and i'll be there." Griff said when he hung up the phone.

"I'll show that arrogant brat who is the best snowboarder." Zoe said after she hung and prepared herself for the race.

* * *

After three hours of flying, Zoe arrived at her first mountain she has ever driven. They met up at the top of her old racing mountain and course, Garibaldi. They both finally arrived at the mountain.

"So, looks like you have decided to show up. It's best two out of three, right?" Griff said challenging.

"You don't now me that well, I will always ride and i'll never give up or bail, like you did to us. Let's ride!" Zoe said when she grabbed her board.

"Come on Zoe!" Griff said when he also grabbed his board and stood at the start position.

The two boarders waited for the start sign to go off. After the light hit green, both boarders raced through the bottem of the mountain.

After a long while, Zoe won the race very easily, but the challenge wasn't finished yet as it was 1-0 for her.

"Ha, how do you like that huh? I'm first, that's 1-0 for me sucker!" Zoe said teasing.

"Brag all you want, we are not finished yet so everything can happen." Griff said when they both went inside the chopper and started all over again.

Once again, they stood at the start positions and started their second race. In the second race, Griff was victorious with just a small minute infront of her.

"In your face Zoe, that's how you do it! That is 1-1." Griff said.

"Just luck, I was like 5 seconds behind you. This is our last race, it's all or nothing now." Zoe said when they both went to the start positions for the third time.

The boarders started their last race to decide the they both almost arrived at the finishline, they both passed it and ended in a draw.

"What, a draw? Hell no, the word "draw" is not in my dictionary, let's go again!" Zoe said.

"Stop crying, I won this race." Griff said when they started over again.

"You better watch it, before i'll make you cry." Zoe said mad.

But then when they raced again, it ended in a draw as Zoe was diappointed that she somehow couldn't finish the race.

"You know what, let's stop, this is not working out at all." Griff said.

"Why, are you scared that you're going to lose the next race?" Zoe asked.

"No i'm not scared, but we are obviously not going to decide who is the best right now, we need something else for this."

"Hmmm, now that you mention it, this mountain is actually for beginners, we need something more difficult. I have only chosen it because I know this mountain like my pocket."

"Wait a second, how about we ride bigger, harder and more challenging mountains and courses. How about, the nine deadly descents of the world. Like the Mt. Everest, Kilimanjaro and Patagonia."

Yeah, yeah I like that idea, but I can't do that alone. It'll exhaust me, we need more people for this."

"Ha, you can bring more people if you want to, but I can do it all alone."

"Fine you're on, the one who descent more mountains, wins. It's you versus my team of snowboarders, with me as the leader."

"Sounds like a plan, kiss on it?" Griff said as Zoe immediately slapped him. "Awh, could have said no, of course that's way to hard for you." Griff said when he walked away to his helicopter stroking his cheek.

"Creep. Now I just have to find some people... I think I already know a couple people that would love help me."

* * *

Zoe went to the helicopter and prepared to take of to Fuji, to meet an old friend she met in a tournament a couple months ago.

After a day of flying in the helicopter, Zoe arrived in Fuji. The helicopter landed and the pilot tried to wake her up.

"Here we are kid, Fuji." the pilot said when he woke Zoe up.

"Uuuwaahh, man that was a good nap, what did you say?" Zoe asked.

"We are in Fuji, that's were you wanted to go, right?"

"Good, i'll be right back, this won't take long. I'm going to get Tane Mumea." Zoe said when she left.

"All right kid, see you in a few." the pilot said.

Zoe then went to the most famous beach on Fuji, the Hakone beach, to find the one she wanted to join him.

At the beach, Tane was meditating with a couple of his surf students about finding their inner rest in the waves of the sea.

"Oke everybody, breathe in... and out... Now students, I have to say hello, to my old friend of the snowboard world, Zoe Payne." Tane said when he noticed her behind him and stood up.

"Looks like you have eyes in the back of your head." Zoe said.

"What a suprise to see you here, what are you up to now?" Tane asked.

"I can explain that to you later, but what I want to ask you is. Do you want to join me for a wicked adventure?"

"Hmmm, if you say it like that, then it must be getting fun. You got my support."

"Great, shall we go?"

"After you. Goodbye everyone, I have to help my friend out, practise what I showed you and everything will be fine. Show the waves that you are the boss, not that they are the boss of you." Tane said as he grabbed his stuff.

"Goodbye Tane, see you soon." his students said as they waved him away.

They arrived at the chopper and got in.

"So what's your plan if I may ask?" Tane asked.

"First we'll form a team from the best snowboarders alive. While I was on my way to Fuji, I already called a couple friends of mine from the past, except for you and another one who is still in America. I told them to meet at the L.A. Airport." Zoe said.

"Oke then, sounds like a plan." Tane said when he sat down.

"Pilot, bring us back to L.A. California would you? Time to meet up with a corporate big shot." Zoe asked.

"Sure." the pilot said when he started the chopper.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mac was in his office doing some boring paperwork.

"Melissa, are there any calls for me, or something interesting? I don't care what it is." Mac asked curious and bored when he pushed the button on his phone.

"No calls for you sir, well there was one call for you. It was... well you know who." Melissa his secretary said.

"Again that obese lady that wants to date me, you didn't pull her through, did you?"

"Of course not, I told her you were in Australia for a meeting like you said."

"Good, i'm getting tired of her calling and texting me all the time. I really need to change my phone number."

"Oh sir, there are two people here to see you."

"Really, I don't have anyone scheduled for today. Send them in, maybe it's something interesting, I hope." Mac said.

"Of course sir." Melissa said.

She let Zoe and Tane move on to his office, they then walked in and looked at the chair that was faced to the window. Mac turned his chair around and saw Zoe and Tane standing there.

"Zoe, Tane, it's you two!" Mac said when he stood up.

"Hey there buddy, long time no see, how have you been lately?" Zoe asked.

"Look at this, I got an office for myself, I got the money, I got the babes. I got everything a guy could wish for and guess what? I'm still not happy!" Mac said furious when he threw his paperwork on the ground.

"Calm down man, what happend to you and snowboarding?"

"Eh, it didn't work out that well, I won almost everything, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more challenges, and take more risks. Going from little kiddy mountain to kiddy mountain was just boring and not fun at all. Everytime I went out of bounds, snow patrol put me back into the ski resort. I got so tired of it, that I just quit snowboarding."

"Listen man, I got the answer to your quest for adventure. I'll explain that later but what i'm asking is. Do you want to join me and Tane and start snowboarding again?"

"Hey, if I can get the hell out of this stupid office, i'm in!" Mac said when he prepared.

"Good, and uhh... Bring your favourite board with you. You'll need it."

"No problem. You don't have to worry about me." Mac said when he pushed a button and his favourite snowboard appeared from the wall with angelic music sounding around the office.

"Angel music, man you really are bored, aren't you?" Zoe asked confused.

"It was a little something I though of at the last second. Yes, i'm bored as hell, that's the proof you need." Mac said.

"I like the music, it sounds peace- and restful. Uhhhhmmmm." Tane said while meditating.

"I bet you do. Come on guys, we really need to go." Zoe said when they walked

He grabbed his board and followed both of them out of the building. Before they exit the building, Melissa immediately ran up to him.

"Wait sir, what about your business?" Melissa asked.

"You have seen and know what my responsibilities are, you take over." Mac said when he left.

"But I... I don't think I... all right i'll try it out sir."

"Good luck Melissa, see you sooner or later." Mac said whe he was all gone.

* * *

While they still walked down the street, Mac got kind of curious in knowing Zoe's plan.

"Zoe, where are we headed to?" Mac asked.

"We are going to the airport, we'll met with a couple people there to meet them, you might recognize most of them." Zoe said.

"Oke fine then, can you alteast give me a hint on what your plan is?"

"A hint hmmm... Let's just say that, you might ride the Mt. Everest soon enough."

"You mean i'm going to ride the highest mountain in the world? All right stop with the hints before I get too excited." Mac said when they continued walking.

After all that walking, they finally arrived at the airport, they went to the mainhall and looked around when they suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, you guys, over here!" Elise yelled when she waved at them.

Zoe, Tane and Mac then approached Elise who was there with Moby, Ty, and Alex.

"Hey Elise, long time no see, how is the movie business?" Zoe asked.

"Well, could have gone better, but I don't have any contracts now, so I got free time on the hand." Elise answered.

"Cool, and what about you Moby?" Zoe asked.

"I was bored with my life in the skateshop without snowboarding. When Elise called me about you, I packed my stuff right away. It's good to see you back after a while." Mody said when he puts his arm around her.

They both looked at each other, but then immediately stopped and looked away.

"Great, great, and you two must be Alex Moreau, that supermodel from France, and Ty Thorson, that snowboarder from Norway called "Lucky" are you?" Zoe said when she walked away from him.

"Oui, Elise et moi avons rencontré lors d'un spectacle à Paris, nous avons parlé de la façon dont nous avons tous deux aimé la planche à neige, elle nous a gardé contact." Alex said in French.

"What did you say?" Zoe asked.

"Oh sorry, uhhmm... Elise and I met during a show in Paris, we talked about how we both loved snowboarding, she we kept contact.

"Oh oke, but can you try and speak English, no offence but we all need to understand what you're saying if we are going to work together."

"No problem, but my English is uhh... not that good so excuse me if I misspronounce some words or sentences." Alex said hesitating.

"Good, and you must be Ty right?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah that's me, Norway had some cool mountains to ride, but I need something more difficult man. People call me Lucky because of the hazards I like to on the mountain." Ty said.

"You'll get your chance soon enough. Now we just have to wait for two more people to arrive. Wait, where is Eddie, Elise?" Zoe asked.

"Oh Eddie well... I don't know what happend to him. I tried to call him, but he changed his number and doesn't respond to anything. It's like he just disappeared for unknown reasons. Nobody knows where he is." Elise said.

"Hmm, that's weird, we'll have to do without him."

"Who are we waiting for Zoe?" Mac asked while he sat down.

"Easy man, the last two people will be here right... now." Zoe said when she heard a plane landing.

The plane from Japan arrived and the two last people she needed arrived.

"Hey everybody, I'm back!" Kaori yelled happily when she got out the boarder.

"Hey, good to see you again." Zoe said happily.

"Mac!" Kaori said when she ran up to him.

"Hey there hotness... Wait a sec... Do I know you from somewhere, you look very familiar?" Mac said curious when he puts his hand on his chin.

"Kaori, from The SSX tournament, you're riding partner? I can't believe you have forgotten about me." Kaori said disappointed.

"Wait Kaori, it's really you? No, I haven't forgotten you, but you just look so different. I didn't recognize you. How have you been?" Mac asked when he looked closer.

She puts her hands on her hips and only gave him a look like she didn't understand what he was saying.

"Oh yeah I forgot, you're Japanese, uuhh. Ni ho... uuhh... Kaiya langu youki gohada... uuhh... Man what was it again?" Mac hesitated nervously when he scratches his head.

Everybody died form laughter after Mac failed to speak Japanese

"Hahahahahaha, looks like you haven't changed these past years. Still the same Mac, the worst Japanese speaker on Earth, hihihi. It sounded pretty cute though." Kaori said happily.

"Thanks well, languages were never my strong point. Wait, you just spoke English, when did you learned to do that?"

"Like five or four years ago, I thought it was time to finally learn it."

"That's so cool, now we can finally talk to each other." Mac said when they both looked deeply in each others eyes.

"Hey, have you noticed that every time Mac and Kaori are together, they get all sentimental and stuff?" Moby asked.

"They acted like this when the first SSX tournament started. They were always this close and riding partners." Zoe said.

"So how was your flight, was it good?" Mac asked Kaori.

"Uhm, yeah about that, it was kind of uh..." Kaori hesitated a they heard a loud noise coming from the boarder.

Then suddenly, Psymon appeared from the boarder.

"Ooooh yeah, it feels good to be back in good ol' U.S.A.! Japan was awesome, but nothing beats American mountains! More pain and risks, please hehehe!" Psymon said loudly.

"See, it was kind of loud and obnoxious because of Psymon, couldn't sleep or have some rest around the plane. My headset didn't do much because of his loud voice." Kaori said to Mac.

"Kaori! I didn't know you were in the plane too, looks like you and I are going to have some fun snowboarding. Hahaha!" Psymon yelled when he puts his arm around her.

"Great, can't wait for that." Kaori said sarcastic.

"All right Psymon, take it easy now, save that madness for the mountain." Zoe said when she pulled him of of Kaori.

"Zoe! Haven't seen you for ages, still a Demon on the mountains?" Psymon asked when he puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah I'm still busy, but let me go would you." Zoe said.

"Hey, don't touch her Psymon!" Moby said quickly.

"Take it easy Moby, just asking a question. You still are a feisty one after these years, go get yourself a piece of cake or something to eat. It'll calm your hothead down for sure." Psymon said.

"Hey i'm not feisty, you just need to calm down, that's all!"

"Stop it you guys, we don't have time for you two to fight. Now that everybody is here, except for Eddie, let's get out of here. I got a meeting place we can use as headquarter." Zoe said when she puts his hand away and walked away.

They all followed her to the building where they would stay at for the competition.


	2. Start Descending

After the meeting, Zoe and the SSX veterans went on their way to Zoe's own meeting point. While they were walking, the team members were talking to each other.

"So Kaori, what's up with your hair?" Mac asked curious.

"I thought it was time for a new look, brown hair was getting boring, so I made it black and the front a little pink. Why, do you hate it? Do you think brown looks better on me?" Kaori asked scared and worried as she touched her hair

"No, no, I really like you... uuhh I mean it, you look great, as always." Mac said happily.

"Awh thank you, that's sweet of you to say."

At that point, they all heard a loud noise coming from behind.

"Oooooohhhhh Mac!" the voice yelled loudly as he heard it.

"Huh, what is that?" Mac said when he saw a fat lady running towards him. "Oh no, no please not her!" Mac said scared as he backed away a little.

Then suddenly, he got tackled by the obese lady. Kaori got shocked by her attack on him and puts her hand on her mouth.

"Oh Maccie poopie, I thought you were gone to Australia, but now you are back just for me!" the lady said.

"God damnit woman, would you get off of me!" Mac said annoyed.

"Mac, who is this?" Zoe asked.

"Argh, this is the same lady that has been stalking me since the mistake at the bar with my friends. After that, she keeps following me and wouldn't leave me alone. Get off of me!" Mac yelled at her.

All of the team members of SSX died from laughter seeing Mac like that, except for Kaori who thought of a plan to help him. Then when she got an idea, and she tried to get her attention.

"Hey you... Get off my man!" Kaori yelled.

"Man!" team SSX, Mac and the lady yelled suprised while looking at her with their eyes wide open.

"You heard me loud and clear missy, I said let him go!" Kaori yelled mad as she pointed at her and the lady got off of him.

"W... what do you mean... your man?" the lady asked scared and sad as Mac stood immediatly up from the ground.

"Kaori, what are you doing?" Zoe asked.

"Let me handle this Zoe, this won't take long." Kaori said to her.

"Oke, do what you gotta do." Zoe said.

"Listen you. Mac is my man, I was on a holiday, but now i've returned. Back off, or you'll be sorry if touch him again!" Kaori said mad as she hugged him and puts her cheek on Mac's.

"Oh, it looks like you are very happy with each other, I just have to accept that. Goodbye Maccie, i'll miss you." the lady said.

"Please, go away forever, and never come back for the love of God!" Mac said as the lady left him alone.

"Does anybody else thought that this was kind of awkward?" Ty asked.

"Hell yeah." everybody said while shaking their head.

"Phew, thanks for your help Kaori, I owe you one." Mac said while she still hugged him.

"You're welcome." Kaori said.

"Uhh, Kaori... I think you can let me go now. She is gone so you can stop acting. Hello... Earth to Kaori."

"Oh, ooohh, yeah sure, sorry. I kind of got... caught up in the moment, hehehe." Kaori said while she was blushing and her cheeks got red.

"Are we done yet, we really have to step on it you guys." Zoe said hasty as they continued walking.

* * *

After a half our of walking, they finally started to approach the meeting point.

"Zoe, are we there yet, i'm getting a bit tired of walking." Elise asked.

"We are here, welcome to the SSX resort, rented by me." Zoe said when she showed the resort they would stay at.

"Wow, it's amazing, how did you managed to rent this place?" Moby asked curious.

"I used the money I won from the snowboard tournaments, I rented this place while I was on my way to Fuji to meet with Tane. What are we waiting for, let's go in."

"Hey, we are following you baby." Mody said as Zoe looked suprised at Moby for his comment.

She then smiled and went inside with them.

"Look at this room, it looks so big. We can hold some awesome parties here." Mac said.

"The parties will come later. Let's sit down everyone. It's time to tell you guys why you are here." Zoe said when they walked towards a huge sofa.

As they all sat down, Zoe tried to start her story.

"All right, welcome everybody. I'm glad all of you could make it to help me out with this." Zoe said.

"No problem, but why are we here?" Ty asked.

"Right, let me get to the point. Like all of you guys know, the last SSX tournament was 6 years ago. After that tournament, we all said goodbye to each other and started a new life away from snowboarding. Except for me because I still wasn't finished snowboarding." Zoe said.

"True that." Mac said with his arms crossed.

"But after a very long time, I managed to reunite the SSX All-Stars. But we all have a problem, like you probably know, Griff wasn't finished snowboarding either. He was talking about being better than his former SSX members and the newcomers."

"Yeah I knew that, Griff was last one television, he even talked about you." Elise said.

"That was my biggest issue, and that's also the reason he is not with us right now. Griff has bailed on us because his ego is the size of Russia."

"What a jerk, after he became "one of the best" he thinks that he doesn't need anybody except for himself." Kaori said.

"Yes Kaori, that's exactly right. A few days ago, I challenged Griff to an all out race to determent who is the best by riding our old course, Garibaldi."

"Aaahh Garibaldi, I especially liked the back country, a lot of trees. So many hazards that it makes me so excited for danger. Hahahaha!" Psymon yelled.

"Yes, I did that to give myself an advantage, but he proved to be better then in the third SSX tournament."

"And what your plan? You still doesn't told us." Alex asked difficult as she tried to speak English.

"After we were done, Griff and I thought about how we could settle our rivalry. That's why we have decided to have an all out competition I called; SSX Deadly Descents."

"What do you mean, Deadly Descents?" Moby asked.

"It means, that all of us will ride on one of the nine most deadliest mountains on the planet, and descent them while beating Griff instead of each other this time."

"Cool, I'm going to ride the Patagonia." Elise said.

"And I'm going to ride in the Alps, sweet risks and pain is waiting for me!" Psymon yelled.

"That's why I like all of you, not afraid to ride the deadliest mountains, just have fun haha." Zoe said happily.

"All right Zoe, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are with you." Mac said.

"Do all of you agree with Mac?" Zoe asked.

"Yes, we are in." everybody else said while they were agreeing with him.

* * *

Then suddenly, Griff walks into the resort and approached the team.

"Hello losers, how is the meeting going Payne?" Griff asked.

"Griff, you got a lot of nerve to show your face around here." Zoe said.

"Ha, you sound suprised, you probably don't know that I also rented this place. My room is on the other side of the wing."

"Great, now we know that we don't have to go there, there are probably millions of rats crawling around there."

"Ha, that's big talk of the great Zoe Payne, who can't even defeat me."

"Argh you little..." Zoe yelled as she got mad, but at the right time, Moby holds her tight trying to prefend her from losing it.

"Griff, you have ten seconds to leave this room, or you're in big trouble!" Mac said.

"Ah Mac, you are here too huh, what makes you think i'm scared of you?" Griff asked.

"Five... Four... Three... Two...!" Mac said as he approached him slowly.

He then walked away while laughing with his hands in his pockets.

"I freaking hate that kid, ugh." Zoe said when she calmed down.

"Forget about him, he won't show his face here again. Tell us Zoe, don't we need somebody to referee?" Mac asked.

"Ah, already made sure of that, come on in man." Zoe said when she calls him up.

Then at that moment, the lights went off and they all heard a familiar voice of many years ago.

"Hello everybody, DJ Atomika A.K.A Mark here with a special announcement for the whole world. I'm going to host the upcoming competition about the SSX Veterans vs Griff." Atomika said when he walked in with his headphone on and a mirophone in his hand.

"No way, it's Mark!" Mac said when they all walked towards him.

"Hello SSX veterans and newcomers, it's good to see you after these years. I'm grateful that Zoe invited me to referee the Deadly Descents competition."

"Hey Zoe, who is this guy?" Alex asked.

"Oh, this is our friend from the third SSX tournament, DJ Atomika or Mark as he is called. He was the commentator and newscaster to inform us about the tournament. He helped us numerous times around the mountain." Zoe explained.

"That's right, Tane, Ty, Alex, nice to meet you three. You'll have a great time with the veterans." Atomika said.

"Thanks, nice to meet you to." Ty, Tane and Alex said at the same time.

* * *

"Enough meeting time you guys, the tournament will begin in two days. Atomika, explain the rules for them." Zoe said.

"My pleasure. Listen carefully members, Zoe told you that the competition is called Deadly Descents. These are the rules, there are nine Deadly Descents and there are nine of you. So each of you will be picked randomly and ride only one mountian with three main events, Race It, Trick It and Survive it." Atomika explained.

"Awh, only one mountian, why not more?" Mac asked diappointed.

"Because there are nine people, so we need to be fair and share the mountains."

"But I think it would be better to ride more mountains."

"Sorry Mac, nine people so each one gets one mountain."

"But..."

"Only one mountain Mac!" everybody on the team yelled as Kaori pushed him of the couch.

"Ouch, oke, oke only one mountain. You don't have to get mad, just asking a question." Mac said when he sat down again.

"Where was I... Oh yeah, to descent the mountain, you need to win atleast two events from Griff to win. Everyone of you will take a helicopter to the mountains to ride them, don't worry, they are very, very quick so you're there in no time. But let me warn you people about the mountains you're about to ride. Each mountain has nine deadly hazards that can kill you easily if you make just one little mistake. The nine are avalanches, whiteouts, oxygen pressure, ice, darkness, sunlight, rocks, trees and gravity. Each of you will get equipped with special equipment to survive the descents. I attached some cameras on the helicopters, they will send us the live stream images so that we can see you ride. And this is a headset, each of you will get one if you need help or if somebody is in trouble. Good luck with the competition and stay alive." Atomika said as he gave everybody the headset and walked away

"Well, that's good to know." Mac said

"Thanks Mark, now guys, that was it for today. We'll pick our first contender in two days, you can pack your stuff in your own rooms. You have to share a room with somebody because the resort doesn't have that many rooms. So Kaori, you share a room with Elise. Moby, you'll share a room with Mac. Tane, you share a room with Ty, and I'll share a room with Alex. Psymon needs his own room because of his... madness issues, and I don't think anybody wants to be in one room with him." Zoe said.

"Hahahaha, yes, my own room to get crazy. Hey Zoe, when you have time, wanna go to my room and get crazy with me!" Psymon said.

"No, no I really don't want to do that, I know my limits of danger Psymon." Zoe said when she rolled her eyes.

Moby looked jealous at both of them. He then focused his sight on Mac again about sharing a room.

"Wait, hold on a second there mate. I don't want to share a room with Mac!" Moby said.

"Hey, why not, i'm a good roommate." Mac said offended.

"No you're not, the last time I shared a room with you, your clothes and junk were laying all over the bloody room. Never ever, will I share a room with you again."

"Come on, I was young and irresponsible, I know how to keep my room clean. I'm older and very responsible now."

"That may be true, but you're still the youngest of all us."

"He's a slob, don't worry Moby bro, i'll share a room with him. Something I can relate to dude." Ty said.

"Awh man. Fine then, i'll take Ty as my roommate." Mac said.

"Good." Moby said.

"Wait... The youngest, wasn't Kaori the youngest of us?"

"Mac, i'm 26 years old." Kaori said.

"Really? But i'm 25, I thought I was a year older than you." Mac said

"I was born December 1986."

"I was bron July 1987. If I was born in '86, I would have been older."

"I'm just older, so what, that doesn't matter, does it?" Kaori said as he puts his arms crossed and looked away.

"Great, i'll share a room with Tane, atleast he looks like someone who doens't make a big mess." Moby said.

"Enough talking, go ahead and pick a room for yourself, take a good rest before we are going to pick the first boarder." Zoe said as she walked away to her room.

Everybody walked away and picked a room for themselves, they all finally picked a room and packed their stuff.

* * *

After a day of relaxing and preparing, the competition finally started as everybody and Griff got ready to meet Atomika in the main hall. He used a spinning wheel to pick the one who's going to ride the first mountain.

"Hah, you guys are going down. You'll soon realise..." Griff said proudly but then got interrupted by Mac.

"Man, shut up and sit down. We don't have time for your babbling right now." Mac said

"Just wait and see, i'll defeat every last one of you!" Griff said as he just sat down with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

Atomika grabbed a huge box and puts it on the ground. He puts his hand in it, trying to pick the first mountain.

"Oke, the mountain that goes first is... the Rocky Mountains." Atomika said as he grabbed the card out of the big box.

"Cool, I love the Rockies, let me ride it... or should I say her, ahahah!" Psymon asked.

"Let Atomika decide." Tane said trying to calm Psymon down.

"All right guys, are you ready for this?" Atomika asked.

"Show us the first boarder." Mac said .

"Ok, the first one who goes is..." Atomika said

The wheel stopped after a couple seconds and he chose a purple card, he grabbed it and read what was on the card.

"Hmmm... looks like our leader and Demon, Zoe Payne, will be the first one to ride." Atomika said when he pointed at Zoe.

"Me, well what a coincidents." Zoe said as she stepped up together with Griff.

"Oke, the descent of the rockies are trees, so Zoe and Griff, you have to be equipped with some good armor to survive. Your first event is going to be a Race It, do any of you need to have some practise runs on the Rockies?" Atomika asked.

"Hmmm... no, I don't need that." Griff said.

"Me neither, have been in the Rockies before, no big deal." Zoe said.

"It's settled, boarders, get to the choppers to begin your event at the Rocky Mountains." Atomika said.

Before Zoe grabbed her snowboard and stuff, Moby came to her room, paying her a visit.

"Hey Zoe, I just..." Moby said.

"Yeah, whassup Moby?" Zoe asked.

"I wanted to wish you good luck, and don't get hurt out there." Moby said as he gave her a hug.

"Usually I don't like this kind of stuff, but i'll make an exception. Why so sentimental and stuff all of a sudden?"

"Well, Atomika said that the hazards could kill you if you make just a small mistake. Please, try and be careful there mate."

"Moby, do you know who you're talking to? It's me Zoe, I can take care of myself, so don't you worry about me. We know each other for years, and I like it rouge, without it, it's not fun at all. I'll be back save and sound, don't forget that I can't hold back or Griff will win this." Zoe said trying to cheer him up.

"You're right, what was I thinking. Good luck Zoe, i'll cheer for you and watch the live stream." Moby said as she gave him a thumb up.

Together with Griff, she went outside and stepped into the helicopter. Team SSX was watching the livestream on tv to see how the race would go.


	3. Zoe Payne: First Stop, Rockies

After a couple hours of flying to the Rocky Mountains, Zoe and Griff arrived at her first event, the Race It on her first course, JT2.

"All right people, here we are, the Rockies. Good luck, i'll stay close to both of you." the pilot said.

"Thanks man." Zoe said when she stood up and grabbed her board.

"Get ready Zoe, this time, it won't end up in a draw like the last time." Griff said challenging.

"You wish, i'm going to win this race, get ready for your second place smile." Zoe said.

"I'll open the door for you two to start the race." the pilot said when he opened the door and Zoe and Griff stood ready to begin.

Back at the SSX resort, the team was watching the livestream that still hasn't started yet.

"How long will it take to begin, i'm getting kind of nervous." Mac said.

"It will happen soon, it says that they are getting ready to get at it." Moby said.

Then suddenly, the screen cleared up and they saw both Zoe and Griff.

"Yeah, look there she is. Come on Zoe!" Elise said excited.

The pilot gave the signal and both of the boarders jumped out of the chopper to start their race. Team SSX was rooting for Zoe while watching the livestream.

"Zoe's in shape!" Zoe yelled at the beginning of the race.

"I'm speeding!" Griff yelled while going toe to toe with Zoe.

* * *

After a while of racing, Zoe and Griff started to get some space from each other. They took a big jump and both saw a tunnel right infront of them.

"See you at the finishline loser!" Zoe said when she entered the tunnel.

"We'll have to see about that!" Griff said when he went to the right side.

"Man, look at the race, this is so awesome dudes. It's intense between those two." Ty said excited.

"I know, I wish I could ride there with her." Elise said.

"Come on guys, let Zoe know that we are rooting for her, you're not showing enough support!" Moby said when he stood up from the couch.

"The way how you're rooting for her, I think she can hear you all the way from the Rocky Mountains." Mac said as everybody laughed.

"Uhh, I uhh... Come on Zoe!" Moby said quickly as he was rooting for her.

She exits the tunnel and took the huge jump. She didn't see Griff anywhere.

"Ha, I left him right were he belongs, in the dust." Zoe said while arriving at an abandoned train rails.

"Cool, this'll be fun." Zoe said when she took the rail and did the Lugar Boardslide while speeding on the rails

While she was sliding, she slid outside the tunnel and noticed a sound right above her head. Then suddenly, Griff dropped from the sky and landed on the other rail next to her after doing a Uber Trick.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Zoe asked curious.

"Forget about that, if I were you, I'd focus on the race rather then your opponent. Later Zoe. Wooohoooo!" Griff said when he went faster.

Zoe then got of the rail and followed the original course again. She didn't see Griff anymore again and only thought on how she could win the race.

"He's gone, this is my chance. I'll take the first win of this competition." Zoe said when she completed the first and second jump.

She saw the helicopter land a couple metres away and knew that it was the finishline right there.

"Almost there..." Zoe said when she was speeding to get to the finish before Griff arrived there first.

Then suddenly to Zoe's suprise, Griff was right under her and approached the finishline faster then her.

"No, how is that possible, Griff was nowhere to be found! That little cheater!" Zoe said suprised as Griff arrived first at the finish.

Then seconds later, Zoe also arrived, causing her to claim second place.

"Hey you, how did you managed to get here before me, you were nowhere to be found. You better not cheat." Zoe asked mad.

"I used the original course and the secret paths that belong to it, those are faster but you only took the slow paths, causing you to waist your time. Sorry Zoe, but the first victory is mine." Griff said as Zoe looked furious.

"I'll see you on the Trick It event, you... are going down!" Zoe said when she walked away.

They then stepped into the helicopter again, team SSX was watching as they saw the footage of Griff winning the first race.

"Awh man, this is awful. Griff is better then we anticipated." Mac said when she sat down.

"How could Griff already win, we need to outsmart him somehow like he did to Zoe." Elise said.

"We'll find a way, he has the brain of a little kid, and it's easy to outsmart them." Moby said.

Zoe and Griff were ready to go to their next event, the Trick It event on Curnoe's Mustache.

* * *

After her lose at Griff on the Race it on JT2, Zoe and Griff prepared to hold their Trick it event on Curnoe's Mustache.

The helicopter almost arrived at the course as he turns his speaker on.

"We are there in a couple seconds, so get ready to tricky. Do as many tricks as you can to score bigger and bigger." the pilot said.

"Got it buddy." Zoe said serious.

At the resort, team SSX was still watching the stream as Atomika approached the bench.

"Hello guys." Atomika said.

"Hey Mark, wassup?" Mac asked.

"I forgot to tell you something about the Trick It."

"What is it then?" Elise asked.

"I managed to do something that all of you, except for the newcomers, will remember from the Tricky tournament. While you're tricking, you'll hear a special music while doing it."

"Wait, a special music... You don't mean the..." Mac said as he looked suprised at the screen.

"Yes indeed, now it's remixed and better than before. You'll hear it soon, later people." Atomika said as he left them alone.

"Bye, guys what is that music your friend was talking about?" Tane asked.

"It's a special song we always used years ago. We could do tricks better with that music on, it gives some kind of adrenalinic fibe in your body. Oh this'll be good. Griff doesn't stand a chance when Zoe hears that song." Elise said.

"Hey, I wanted to say that." Mac said.

"Forget about it Mac. Let's just watch Zoe in action." Elise said.

Meanwhile at the helicopter, Zoe and Griff grabbed their boards and stood ready to begin he event.

"All right, ready to begin?" the pilot asked when he opened the door.

"Come on, bring it already" Zoe said.

"Ready... Set... Go, Go, Go, Go, Go!" the pilot said as Zoe and Griff started their Trick It.

"Oke, focus on the tricks, and score big." Zoe thought as she did the jump.

She did a Switch Flying Squirrel while spinning in mid-air. The pilot saw what she did and played the song they all recognized.

"It's very complicated...! Tricky, tricky, tricky tricky!" the song played from the helicopter.

"Wait, I know that song, don't tell me that... Hahaha, all right this is great, it's back!" Zoe said as she saw another jump and sped up to it.

She then did the Skycraper while doing backflips in the air that gave her a ton of points. Griff was way ahead of her doing tricks when he suddenly heard the song.

"Yeeaaahhh!" Zoe said excited.

"Huh? What is this kind of garbage, it's sounds so annoying. I can't concentrate." Griff said as he continued doing tricks.

While he did that, Zoe then jumped right above him.

"Hey Griff what's wrong, not so tough on tricks are you! It's tricky time!" Zoe said teasing.

"What, you haven't won this yet! Not even with that stupid music on." Griff said as he did his Sugar Rush on the next big jump he took.

After a couple seconds, they arrived at a huge abandoned electric rail that went up in the air.

"That rail is my way to win this." Zoe said when she took the rain and did the Invertible boardslide.

"No, no, Zoe will not beat me. I'm almost there!" Griff said when he tried to catch up while Zoe was on the electric cable line.

She jumped off and did her Signature trick, Pommel Me.

"Beautiful, and I can see my... oh forget it!" Zoe said while breakdancing.

When she landed on the ground, she arrived at the finish and waited for Griff to be done. After a couple minutes, Griff dropped from the sky and landed at the finish.

The points were getting counted to see who has won the event. Team SSX was sitting on the top of their seats to see who has won.

"Come on, come on, show us who won." Mac said nervous.

The scores were in, Griff's points were on the screen and counted 12.967.000 million points.

"Hmm, not that many, bet that Zoe has more points." Moby said.

Zoe's points were counted and later shown on screen. Her score was 22.453.562 million points, therefore winning the Trick it event.

"Yeah, i'm the greatest, i'm the best!" Zoe said as she went inside the plane an rubbed it in infront of Griff.

"Laugh while you still can, we'll see at the Survive It." Griff said uninterested when they both stepped into the chopper.

"Good job both of you, i'll bring you back to the resort, you need some rest." the pilot said when he took of and went back.

Back at the resort, team SSX was cheering for Zoe because of the victory.

"Yeah, she won, we are still in it." Kaori said when she hugged Mac immediately afterwards.

"Hahaha yeah i'm happy for her, hehehe. By the way, I want to ask you Kaori... I... uh..." Mac hesitated nervously while blushing.

"Yeah, what is it that you want to ask me?" Kaori asked happily while smiling.

"No nothing." Mac said when he walked away.

"What's with him, is there something wrong?" Elise asked to Kaori.

"I don't know, maybe he has some issues." Kaori said worried.

* * *

At night time, Zoe finally arrived back at the resort and entered the building.

"Hey guys, i'm back!" Zoe said when she entered.

"Zoe!" everybody yelled happily as they ran up to her.

"Good job on that run, you totally destroyed Griff out there. Too bad for the race it, but what does that matter." Moby said.

"Yes, that was uuhh... magnificent. Did I say it good Elise?" Alex asked.

"Yes Alex, you said it right." Elise said.

"Good job Zoe, my friend, looks like you still haven't lost your touch." Tane said proudly.

"Thanks you guys, forget that Race It. I have to focus on my last run, the Survive It on Mt. Robson." Zoe said.

"No worries baby, before descending the Rockies, you need some training sessions. I'll go with you tomorrow for some practise." Moby said.

"Thanks Moby, you're right. I'm not used to the trees, so it's better to get used to it." Zoe said.

"Good, now I think it's better to go to sleep. You need your strength to be way up or you're toast." Moby said.

"You really want me to win are you? Why are you acting like that, or is there something else you are planning to do?" Zoe asked curious.

"No, no not at all, I just want you to win this. That's all." Moby said.

"Hmmm, well I really appriciate your help and all, but take it easy oke?" Zoe asked.

"Sorry if i'm too pushy, that's just me, sometimes way to serious." Moby said.

"Yeah I know that for sure, i'm going to bed, good night everybody." Zoe said when she went to bed.

"Good night Zoe. Good night everybody." Moby said as everybody went back to their room.

* * *

While everybody was in their room sleeping or just having fun in the middle of the night, Moby walked around the hallway, on his way to somebody else his room.

After a couple seconds, he arrived at the door and knocked on it.

"Hey, who is there man?" Ty asked.

"Hey Ty, is Mac in, I need to talk to him." Moby said.

"Oh yeah, i'll get him for you. Mac!" Ty yelled hardly.

"Ouch my ears! Dude i'm right next to you, take it easy, people are trying to sleep. What is it?" Mac asked.

"Hey that's weird, this song i'm playing is actually called Ouch by Vinyl Dialect, awesome. Moby wants to talk to you dude, he's standing right here."

"Oke i'm coming. Is this really Vinyl Dialect, sounds like Lupe Fiasco." Mac said when he approached the door.

"Hey Moby, what's up, is there something?" Mac asked.

"Yeah man, can you step into the hallway for a minute?" Moby asked.

"Sure." Mac said as he left the room.

"Tell me, do you have a problem?" Mac asked.

"Yeah, it's about Zoe. Do you think i'm too protective towards her?" Moby asked curious.

"Hmmm, now that you mention it, you actually kind of have been too protective. Zoe is not a woman who needs protection you know. She can take care of herself perfectly fine."

"Yeah I know that, but she has been my best friend since the first SSX tournament."

"And, you want to go further then that?"

"Well, I haven't thought about that yet, I think I rather stay friends, but something inside me doesn't agree with my opinion."

"Oke, that's your choice, you may feel better in the morning. You'll know what to do, i'm sure of it."

"Thanks Mac, you may be a slob, but you're a good mate to talk to."

"Uhh, thank you, I guess?" Mac said.

"Well, see ya mate. Good night." Moby said as he walked away.

"Wait wait Moby, I got a question to ask you too. I was actually preparing to pay you a visit, but you're already here so..." Mac asked.

"Yeah, what is it?" Moby asked when he walked back to him.

"It's about Kaori, do you think she likes me. I think I want to ask her out pretty soon, you know, on a date. I tried to asked her out a couple hours ago, but it's her smile that made me all nervous inside." Mac hesitated.

"Well, since we have reunited, you two have been very close. Try and be friends for a while."

"You think so, because I think she thinks i'm a nice guy and friend. But we know each other for like ten or eleven years by now. I think I want to get serious, but what if she doesn't like me back. That's too humiliating for words."

"Listen man, I was there a long time ago when you two became friends and riding partners. If you want to be more then that, try to find out if she wants to be more then friend without her knowing what you are actually doing. Try and do something romantic that will blow her out of her socks, if you have decided what you want to do. Or just give her some flowers and candy with a card in it. Girls will always appriciate it, trust me, well except for Zoe that is." Moby said wisely.

"Flowers... and candy with a card in it? I'll think about it, If I can't think of something awesome, i'll go with the flowers and candy. But don't tell her about this, or it's going to be a bit awkward for me." Mac said interested.

"That's the spirit man and don't worry, I won't tell a soul, as long you won't tell anyone about me and Zoe."

"Promised. It feels good to talk to you about this, you're better than Ty that is. He said that I had to give a girl a hundred bucks to make her mine. I actually have a hundred bucks, but that won't give you... love. You know what I mean?" Mac hesitated nervously.

"Of course I know what you mean. It's kind of late mate, we should really go to sleep." Moby said.

"Good idea, sleep well man." Mac said.

"Sleep well." Moby said as he left the hallway and went back to his room.


	4. Fun Day In The City

The next morning, Zoe gathered team SSX to announce who would accompany her on her training session in the Rockies.

"Oke people, I made a decision who's coming with me for training." Zoe said.

"It'll probably be me, I just know it." Mac said as he looked proudly at everybody.

"The three who'll join me are Moby of course, Alex, and..." Zoe said.

"Oh oh, me, pick me! Come on Zoe, pick me, I wanna go!" Mac said excited.

"Why are you so excited, do you really wanna go there?" Kaori asked.

"Yeah, have you seen the course she just ended, that looked so cool, I wanna go there too." Mac said.

"And the third person who will join me is..." Zoe said.

"Me?" Mac said.

"Not Mac." Zoe said.

"Ha see, I told you it was... Wait what, not me?" Mac said.

"Yep, not you but Psymon will join me."

"Who yeah, time to go Payne!" Psymon said as he was hanging on Zoe's shoulder.

"Don't touch me, don't ever touch me again." Zoe said as Psymon let her go.

"Thank you Zoe, I'll prepare." Alex said as she grabbed her stuff.

"Oke good. Moby, do you have your stuff?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, I just have to grab my bag out of my room, be right back." Moby said.

"Psymon, what about..." Zoe said.

"Got them right here, come on let's go!" Psymon said when he showed his snowboard bag.

"How did you get them that fast?" Zoe asked.

"I grabbed them while you were talking with French fry right there." Psymon said as he pointed at Alex.

"Hey, who you call a fry!" Alex said offended as she puts her hands on her hips girly like.

"Alright alright, that's enough, Alex go to the helicopter with Moby, I'll be there in a second. Just have to handle something." Zoe said.

"Oke, see so soon." Alex said when she left with Moby.

Zoe approached Psymon at that moment.

"Listen, I know about your accident with the electricity and stuff. I have tolerated your behavior for a while, but do not push it and try to keep yourself under controlee. Understand?" Zoe said.

"Yes woman... Keep myself under controlee boss lady." Psymon said when he saluted.

Zoe sights and they both went to the helicopter, leaving the resort on their way to the Rockies once again.

* * *

Back at the resort, the helicopter left and the rest of team SSX were in the lobby again. Mac was depressed because of Zoe's decision as he laid disappointedly on his back on the couch.

"That's so not fair, I wanted to go." Mac said bummed.

"Hey what with you honey?" Kaori asked sweet.

"I wanted to go on the training session, instead she picked Psymon over me."

"Bummer, I'll let you go on my session when I'm next."

"Thanks Kaori... wait what did you say earlier?"

"Uhh, nothing really. I'll uh, go talk to Elise or something, here talk to Ty, later!" Kaori said quickly as she grabbed Ty and ran away from him.

"Hey man, what's up with her?" Ty asked when he sat down.

"I really don't know man." Mac said when he looked at her running away.

Meanwhile, Kaori quickly walked up to Elise.

"Hey Kaori, what's wrong, you look so worried." Elise said.

"Elise, I need to talk to about... something." Kaori said as she got red.

"Sure, but why are you so red?"

"Well, what if you like someone, but you don't know if he likes you back. I haven't dated in a while so I need some advice."

"If I may ask, is he a snowboarder in this room?" Elise asked sneaky.

"No, no not at all, I swear! It's uuhh... someone else... you don't know him!" Kaori said worried.

Elise saw that she was getting red again and already knew it.

"Oh my God it's true, you like Mac! Kaori is in love with Mac!"

"No, no, stop yelling please, or he'll hear you." Kaori said when she quickly silenced her.

Mac heard both of them yelling and approached them because of the loud noise.

"Did somebody called me just now? Could have sworn I heard my name around here." Mac asked as Kaori got red again.

"Hey, Kaori what's wrong, you're so red. Is everything all right with you?" Mac asked but she didn't answer him.

"Elise... please help." Kaori whispers in Elise's ear.

"She's all right, we were talking about the competition, right Kaori?" Elise asked as she winked at her.

"Right?" Kaori said.

"Oke well, see yah later ladies." Mac said as he walked away.

"Oke he's gone, tell me Kaori, do you really like him?" Elise asked.

"I-I do, we have been friends and riding partners for ten years. When time went by, my feelings grew bit by bit stronger than just a friend. I don't know if he feels that way about me either. Please Elise, don't tell him about this conversation. I beg of you."

"Don't worry, your secret is save with me. But why don't you try to find out if he likes you too?"

"I don't know how, I'm worried that I'll say something stupid. I was never that good with flirting. Can you help me find out?" Kaori asked.

"Sure, what you need is a day with friends while Zoe and the others are training."

"Oke, what are you planning?"

"We'll just have a fun day in the city." Elise said.

"Sounds like a fun."

"Then Let's tell the boys, shall we?" Elise said as they both went to Mac and Ty.

"Hey boys, while Zoe is training, how about we'll have some fun in the city?" Elise asked.

"Sure I'm in, how about you Ty?" Mac asked.

"I'm in too, this'll be cool man!" Ty said excited.

"If we are quick, maybe we can catch the next bus." Elise said as she walked away with Kaori.

The four left the resort and went to the city.

* * *

Meanwhile in the helicopter, Zoe, Moby, Alex and Psymon were almost at their training spot, The Extinguisher Tower to start Zoe's training session.

"Alright everyone, we are here at the place. Wrecking Crew is the drop you have to use, it's perfect for training and to get used to the hazards of Mount Robsen." the pilot said.

"Thanks man, drop us of at the highest point would you?" Zoe asked.

"I was going to, give me a second." the pilot said as everybody got ready to start.

"Listen up everybody, this is not actually a race, but an observation. You three are going on ahead while I'll go a couple seconds later behind you. That way, you guys can contact me on our headset what the course looks like." Zoe explained.

"Got you Zoe, is everyone ready?" Moby asked excited.

"I'm good." Alex said as she puts her snow goggles on.

"Bring on the challenge!" Psymon said.

"Oke I'll open the door." Zoe said when she opened the door. "3... 2... 1... Go go go!" Zoe yelled as everybody jumped out of the helicopter and started the training.

Twenty seconds later, Zoe also jumped out and started doing some small Indies to get some speed.

"Alright guys I'm on the mountain." Zoe said through her headset.

"Good job Zoe baby, the first thing you have to do is to duck and watch out for that tree in front of you, it almost surprised me! The best thing you can do is to jump over them." Moby said.

"Got you Moby!" Zoe said when she jumped over the tree and did some backflips.

"Success!" Zoe said as she successfully jumped over the tree.

"Zoe, the next thing you have to watch out for is the cross point after 10 seconds, if don't look out, you'll hit the forest tree." Alex said.

"Cross point huh? Does it matter what side I take?"

"Yes, left side has trees only on the ground and the right side has trees that blocks the middle but not that much trees as the other side. You can take a side, but careful. I saw it when I took the left side." Alex said.

"Oke then!" Zoe said as she went left.

"Zoe wait a second." Moby said.

"What is it Moby?"

"Your deadly descent are the trees, isn't it wiser to take courses with as many trees as possible? Then you will know how to dodge then." Moby suggested.

"Hmmm... You got a point there, alright courses with all trees it is." Zoe said as she went faster.

After a couple minutes of advice from Moby and Alex, she started to wonder what happened to Psymon. She then puts her headset on and tried to reach him.

"Psymon, where are you, I haven't heard anything from you?" Zoe asked.

"Boss lady, I'm already at the finish line, just waiting for feisty Britain and French fry." Psymon said.

"What did you say Psymon!" Moby said mad.

"I'm really starting to dislike Psymon." Alex said.

"Calm down you two, just joking. Zoe, at the end of the course, there is a huge jump, and a tunnel before the jump. Take tunnels or short ways and speed up, you can get through the course faster that way than high jumps." Psymon said.

"Wow that was... actually pretty smart of you Psymon. Didn't know you can pull it off but, thanks?" Zoe said as Moby turns his headset off from pure anger.

"Moby, Moby you there? What with him lately?" Zoe asked confused.

Eventually after minutes of boarding, Zoe arrived at the finish line and stepped into the helicopter. She sat down and saw Moby, Alex and Psymon sitting.

"Good training guys, I already know what I'm going to do. Moby what's wrong, I couldn't reach you on your headset." Zoe said as she gave all of them a high five.

"It broke." Moby said sarcastic without Zoe knowing the he was.

"Let Atomika have a look at it, maybe he can fix it."

"Yeah... maybe mate." Moby said uninterested.

"But thanks you guys, I know exactly what I'm going to do at Mount Robsen." Zoe said inspired.

Somewhere far, Griff was also in his own helicopter, overhearing Zoe's conversation with his headset.

"Hahaha, yes thank you Zoe. Thanks to you, I also know how to win the race. Good that I kept a close eye on you with my helicopter from the race till the finish line. I couldn't get used to the hazard, so your help was very... useful hehehe." Griff said sneaky as he went back to the resort.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mac, Elise, Ty and Kaori were in the city having a good time.

"Yo guys, let's go get something to eat, I'm hungry." Mac requested.

"Yeah I'm hungry too." Kaori said when she felt her stomach.

"There is a Burger Queen right there, come one." Mac said when he and Ty ran away.

"Come on Elise." Kaori said but before she could go after them, Elise held her tight.

"Wait Kaori, this is one test to find out if Mac likes you. Usually at restaurants, boys will pay for everything, so if he wants to pay for you, then that's a small sign." Elise explained.

"I don't know, I rather pay myself."

"Kaori I know what I'm talking about, it's just this once."

"Fine, I'll play along." Kaori said as they both went after the boys.

They entered the Burger Queen and ordered their food.

"Hello, welcome to Burger Queen, may I take your order?" the cassiere asked.

"Hmmm... I think I want a Slopper menu, with some Queen fries and a Moca cola." Mac said.

"And I'll have a double cheeseburger with hurricane fries and a diet coke." Ty said.

"I'll just have some Queen fries and a diet coke. Have to watch my weight." Elise said.

"And I'll take a hamburger and some chicken nuggets." Kaori said.

"Oke that's... 28,95 dollars please." the cassiere said.

As everybody paid their half od the food, Kaori still hasn't as she looked for her money in her pocket, even though she just pretended to look for it.

"Oh no!" Kaori said worried.

"Kaori, what's wrong?" Mac asked.

"I... forgot my money at the resort."

"But... how did you paid for the bus then?"

"Uhh... bus subscription?"

"Is everything alright, miss you still haven't paid." the cassiere said.

"I'll pay for you Kaori. Good that I brought enough money, so here you go." Mac said when he gave her the rest of the money.

Kaori smiled at Elise as Elise gave her a thumb up. They sat down and ate their food, after they were done, they left the restaurant.

"Wow, that food filled a hole." Ty said as he laid back.

"It sure did, and ladies, how was your food?" Mac asked.

"It was good, right Kaori?" Elise said.

"Yes, it sure was, hihihi." Kaori said as she smiled.

Mac looked suspicious at them but then looked above him again.

* * *

Back at the resort, the helicopter arrived as they all stepped as they all stepped out and entered the building.

"Hey, where is everybody?" Moby asked.

"Hello guys." Tane said when he walked up to them.

"What's up Tane, where are the rest?" Zoe asked.

"Everybody is still here, some are in their room doing something for themself. Mac, Elise, Ty and Kaori went to the city."

"Fine then, when will they come back?"

"I honestly don't know, they left right before you did."

"They'll show up eventually, I'm going to take some rest. Everybody, you can do what you want to do." Zoe said when she walked away.

Moby also went to his room, while Alex wanted to take a shower and go to bed for some rest and Psymon just left them alone.

* * *

Back in the city, the four riders decided to walk around the city some more until they found something fun to do.

"So Elise, what do you think we can do?" Kaori asked.

"I don't know, watch a movie maybe? Could be something fun for you, in the movie theater, all alone in the dark, you sitting next to Mac and..." Elise said teasing.

"Don't say it!" Kaori said nervous.

"Oke oke... Kaori and Mac are sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N..." Elise said while singing it in a tune.

"Elise please stop, what if he hears you?" Kaori asked.

"Oh come one, Mac is that kind of boy that likes snuggling in the theater. I know him too you know."

"Oh, I'm so embarrassed." Kaori said as she blushed again.

"I was kidding, don't worry, I can keep secrets hahaha." Elise said as they all passed a window with strippers seen dancing in the windows of a strip club. Mac and Ty stopped at the window while the ladies were still walking without them noticing it.

"Mac, Ty, what do you think we can do? Mac, Ty?" Elise asked as she looked behind her.

She saw Mac and Ty looking closely at the glass like perverts who were glued on it. The ladies then walked towards the boys and stood behind them with their arms crossed.

"There is something else you need to know, boys are pigs in front of these kind of woman. Don't lower yourself to this kind of level, it's too humiliating for words." Elise said as Kaori only had her eyes closed and looked furious, like a vein on her head was getting bigger and bigger.

"Come on baby, shake that groove thing hahaha!" Mac yelled.

"Show us what you got, hehehe!" Ty said while he was laughing and high fived Mac.

Elise also closed her eyes but then Kaori slowly made her move with her fists clenched tightly.

"You take Ty, I'll take Mac." Kaori said as she grabbed Mac by his ear and pulled him away from the window.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch Kaori just... five more minutes come on, she was looking good!" Mac yelled from the pain.

"Don't make me pull harder Mackenzie, come on!" Kaori said mad when she still pulled him away.

"Mackenzie? You only call me that when you're angry, you're serious?" Mac said hurt as he got pulled away.

"Wow, she's learning fast." Elise said when she looked surprised at her.

She also grabbed Ty's ear and pulled him away form the window.

"Ow Elise, let me go, you're hurting my ear!" Ty said.

"Come on Ty, stop drooling!" Elise said as they all left the place.

A couple minutes later, they walked through the city again.

"Are you boys calm again?" Elise asked.

"Yeah sorry for that." Ty said.

"What about you Mac?" Elise asked.

Mac only looked around him, but the saw Kaori looking furious at him and backed away.

"Oke, oke, sorry. Don't look at me like that!" Mac said.

"Good, let's do one more thing before we go back to the resort." Elise said.

"I know something good." Mac said.

"I'm not going to that stupid strip club!" Kaori said.

"No, no not that. I know a place where they have an arcade, it's really cool. We should go there." Mac said.

"The arcade, I'm in for that." Kaori said as her anger disappeared into a smile.

"Come on, it's this way." Mac said when he went the left way and walked toward the arcade.

While they were on their way, Ty came closer to Mac to ask him a certain question.

"Hey dude, is there another reason why you want to go to the arcade?" Ty asked.

"Yeah, we kind of messed up when we looked at those strippers. I have to show her that I'm a great guy, maybe if we have fun at the arcade, she then appreciates me." Mac said.

"Good plan bro, I'll help if you want me to."

"Hmm... nah it's cool man, no need to help me." Mac said as they almost arrived at the arcade.

* * *

After a couple minutes of walking through the mall, they finally arrived at the arcade.

"Here it is, Fosters Arcade hall." Mac said.

"Looks fun, let's go in everybody." Ty said as they all went inside.

"Wow, look at this place, all those fun games." Kaori said when she ran up to an arcade machine.

She puts a quarter in the machine and started playing the arcade game Alley Fighter.

"Kaori... didn't you say that you had no money?" Mac asked suspicious.

"Found it on the ground, look, I beat D. Hyper! Take that with your stupid thunder boots!" Kaori said.

"Hmmm... makes sense." Mac said as he looked away for a second.

After she was done, she walked away from the machine.

"I lost to Kyu, damn Goryuken. Where are the others?" Kaori said disappointed.

"Ty is sitting right there playing a racing game, and Elise is right here snowboarding. Coincidence? I think not." Mac said.

"Why aren't you doing something for yourself?" Kaori asked curious.

"I thought, maybe we can do something together?"

"Sure, why not, you can pick something if you like."

"Uhhmm, look a basketball ring, come on." Mac said as he ran up to the guy who was hosting the game.

"Basketball? But I'm not..." Kaori said but he was already gone. "Oke Kaori, play along, come on girl just... play along." Kaori thought in her head.

"Kaori, come look at this!" Mac said as Kaori approached him.

"What is it?" Kaori asked.

"Look what you can win, those big stuffed animals!"

"Wow they are so cute, look at that dog."

"You want any of them?"

"You mean, you're going to get me one?"

"Yeah, just watch me." Mac said as he paid the host.

"Thank you sir, you have three chances, if you at least hit one, then you win!" the host said.

Mac concentrated as he tried to throw he ball into the next, but with no success, he missed the ball.

"Damn!" Mac said disappointed.

"Don't worry, you'll pull through." Kaori said as she handed Mac another ball and he tried it again.

But then again, Mac missed the second shot.

"No, come on. Come on!" Mac said mad.

"Think about your aim." Kaori said as he got an idea.

"My... aim? That's it, thank you Kaori." Mac said as he gave het a pat on the shoulder and took some steps back.

"But that's not what I mean? You're only making it harder for yourself." Kaori said worried.

But when Mac saw the ring, he could aim better then when he was in front of it. When he threw the ball, he hit a complete swish and won the prize to the hosts disappointment that he actually won.

"Oh, my boss is going to kill me." the host said silently.

"Yeah I won!" Mac yelled from happiness.

The host gave him the prize stuffed dog as Mac accepted the prize. He then gave the prize to Kaori as a gift.

"Here you go, stuffed doggy." Mac said

"For me? But you deserve it" Kaori asked surprised.

"Nah, because of your tip, I made that shot. Plus, I already said that I was going to win that for you. Here take it." Mac said happy.

"Thank you so much, I love it!" Kaori said when she gave him a kiss on the cheek and Mac fell down while blushing a bit.

"Oh my god, you oke?" Kaori asked when she looked at him while he was on the ground.

He quickly stood up and tried not to hesitate nervously.

"Yeah I uhh... I uhh... Look there are Ty and Elise."

"Hey guys, what's going on here?" Elise asked.

"Mac won this stuffed dog for me, isn't he cute?" Kaori asked.

"Mac, that's pretty nice of you? What's the occasion?" Elsie asked suspicious.

"Oh nothing, just felt like I wanted to do something nice." Mac said.

"Uh-huh, yeah right." Elise said as she looked at a happy Kaori.

"I did!" Mac said worried.

"A-hah, I see what you did there man, good job." Ty said.

"Thank you guys, come on it's getting late. Let's go home." Mac said when they all left the arcade and went back to the resort.


	5. Survive On Mount Robson

At midnight, Mac, Elise, Ty and Kaori arrived back at the resort. The room was completely covered in darkness as they tried to sneak back to their own room.

"Alright just stay quiet." Mac said quietly as they were sneaking around.

"Hope we are not getting spotted." Elise said.

"If we are lucky, we can..." Mac said as somebody turned the lights on.

"Go back to your rooms without Zoe noticing it, hmm?" Zoe said as she looked at them with her arms crossed.

"Damn, were we really that loud?" Ty asked.

"As loud as a bulldozer, where were you guys?" Zoe asked.

"Just in the city you know, having a little fun while you were training..." Mac said as Zoe interrupts him.

"And you didn't had even bother to watch the time?"

"Come one, we were bored, it's not that bad to have some fun!"

"Whatever, listen I need all of you tomorrow morning. The Survive it event against Griff will begin and I need your support." Zoe said.

"Don't worry Zoe, we'll be there for you. Come on guys, we'll go to bed." Elise said as everybody went to there room and Zoe went back to her room take get some good night sleep.

Back in the girls room, Elise and Kaori were talking about their day.

"So, what did you think of it?" Elise asked.

"Today was a good day, especially when he won that stuffed dog for me. That was pretty sweet of him to do" Kaori said.

"I think Mac feels the same about you." Elise said.

"You think so?"

"Yeah really. Tomorrow, you should ask him out."

"What! But I don't know I'm ready to do that yet. Can I get more time to prepare?" Kaori said scared and nervous.

"Kaori, stop being so scared, you have already prove that he likes you too." Elise said

"Then... Where should we go?"

"Just do something you both like, you both enjoyed the city, so go again."

"Hey you're right, oke Elise, thanks for that." Kaori said

"Your welcome, tell me all about it when your back." Elise said

"Hmmm... Maybe." Kaori said when she turned to the other side.

"Kaori, you have to tell me about it." Elise said.

"Maybe." Kaori said while giggling.

"Kaori?" Elise said disappointed. "Oh!" Elise said as she laid down in her bed.

* * *

Meanwhile in the other wing of the resort, Griff was in his room watching the videotape of Zoe's training session. He played the tape a couple times over and over again to find the right course to use.

_"Hmm, that first path that Zoe took, it had more trees on the ground, then in the middle. That would be easier to take on Robson." _Griff thought.

Then he played the video again and saw that Psymon was racing and jumping over the trees.

_"That goofball Psymon said that it's better to stick to the ground and to avoid long jumps. That could be handy." _Griff tought.

Right after that, he saw that Psymon took a tunnel next to the point where the finishline should be and paused the video again.

"Tunnels are great to suprise your opponent, that's all to know about Mount Robson. Watch out Zoe, this race will not end in a draw." Griff said as he turned the tv off.

* * *

The next morning, Zoe was already up and got ready for her last event, the Survive It on Mount Robsen. Tane, Psymon, Moby and Alex were already up and wished her good luck.

"Good luck on your event Zoe, we are rooting for you." Moby said.

"Thanks Moby, this will be a piece of cake." Zoe said as Griff walked by and grunted with lots of confidents.

Zoe saw and heard him grunting as she only gave him a mad and challenged look on her face. She then thought about the couple races she had with him on Garibaldi and clenches her fists tightly.

"What is Zoe?" Alex asked.

"Nothing just... thinking about what happend earlier." Zoe answered.

"What happend earlier then?" Moby asked.

"I had a race with Griff on Garibaldi, I thought that he was still the same noisy little runt as in the third tournament. When I was racing against him, he proved to be way better then in the past." Zoe explained.

"Zoe, you're one of the roughed women I know, don't let a runt with an ego as big as a football field get you down!" Psymon said as he came closer and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"I got this Psymon, this race... will be a lot more different than before. I assure you." Zoe said.

"That's the spirit Zoe!" Moby said.

"Wait a second, we are missing Mac, Ty, Elise and Kaori. Where are those guys?" Zoe asked.

"I haven't seen them at all, they are probably still asleep." Moby said as Zoe got furious and walked away.

"Hey Zoe, where you going?" Alex asked.

"Just taking care of some business." Zoe said while still walking furiously away.

She first when to Ty and Mac's room to wake them up. Zoe opened the door and saw both of them sleeping like they haven't slept for months. The pillows and sheets were all on the ground as they were just in their shorts and t-shirts.

"Mac, Ty. Wake up you lazy bums!" Zoe yelled as Mac and Ty fel out of their beds.

"Wow, what... what's going on?" Mac asked as he scratches his head from confusion.

"This is exactly what I was talking about, you idiots! Both you of, take a shower, get dressed up and go to the main hall. The big screen tv I ordered is here so that you can watch me on a big HD TV." Zoe said.

"Alright alright, uuwwaaahhh, take it easy Zoe. We wouldn't miss your event. Come on Mac bro, let's get dressed up yo... Haha that rhymes." Ty said as both of them left the room and went to the showers.

Zoe left the boys room and went to Elise en Kaori's room. When she almost arrived, Elise and Kaori aready walked out of their room and saw Zoe walking towards them.

"Oh hey Zoe, why are you here, weren't you supposed to get ready for your event?" Elise asked.

"Uh, yeah I was coming to get you two, I thought you were still a sleep like the boys." Zoe said confused.

"Nah, boys are always lazy like that. We knew about it, plus we can sleep out plenty of times. Being here is like a vacation. We are already done so we are now going to the main hall to watch the livestream." Kaori said smiling as they both walked away while talking to each other.

"Of course I can only count on the girls. Well, time to survive." Zoe said encouraging as she left the hallway and went to the mainhall.

* * *

A couple minutes later, every member of team SSX was in the mainhall, wishing Zoe good luck with her Survive it on Mount Robson.

"Alright you guys, this is it. It's time for me to go to Mount Robson." Zoe said as she left.

"Crush the mountain like a demon Zoe!" Psymon yelled.

"I never thought i'd say this but, Psymon is right. Crush the mountain." Moby said as he rooted for her and she gave him a thumb up.

Zoe grabbed her surviving equipment and armor and took off to the Rockies. Team SSX went to their seats and watched the big screen tv until the livestream started.

"Alright then, I wonder how Mount Robson looks like." Mac asked curious.

"It's really cool bro, it has so many trees, that you have to keep your eyes open, and don't even think about blinking once. Or you'll bump your head on the trees above you." Ty said.

"Ty, how do you know that?" Moby asked.

"I have been there before, I tested that course a couple months ago." Ty answered.

"Why didn't you tell Zoe about it?"

"Because Zoe doesn't need my advice, she is already good on her own."

"Well, yeah makes sense, I guess." Moby said.

While they were talking, Kaori was thinking hardly and nerveus as Elise sat next to her.

"Oke, just ask him out right now, go on you can do it and don't be nervous." Elise said.

"I'll try it out, wish me luck." Kaori said as she stood up and sat next to Mac.

"Oh hey Kaori, whats up?" Mac asked.

"Hey uhhmm... Mac... Would you like too... You know uhh..." Kaori hesitated scared.

"To do what, are you alright?"

"To go uhhh... to go... Oh nevermind, bye!" Kaori said scared as she stood up and walked away to sit next to Elise again.

"That was weird, I wonder why she is acting like that." Ty said.

"I don't know what's with her either, maybe she is just tired from yesterday." Mac said when he puts his hand on his chin.

"What went wrong?" Elise asked.

"I just froze, first I was confident about myself, then I just lost it." Kaori said

"How long haven't you dated?" Elise asked.

"For like... 3 years. Have had some others, but it was over in like a month. They were not the ones I actually liked. They just looked good." Kaori said.

"Oh God, this is going to be harder than I thought." Elise said when she puts her hand on his head.

"I'm sorry." Kaori said.

Back in the helicopter, Zoe was cleaning her board and putting on her armor when suddenly the pilot turned his speaker on.

"Alright Zoe, Griff is waiting for you at the mountain. Looks like he is eager to beat you. Stay calm and watch out for the trees. Good luck." the pilot said.

"Thanks man, i'll win this." Zoe said when she opened the door.

Griff hinted for her to give the sign and at the moment she jumped out of the helicopter, Griff and Zoe started their event.

* * *

As they were racing, Griff was in front of Zoe trying not to let her go past him. They both saw a jump and without thinking, she took the high jump.

"Alright, this ain't nothing." Zoe said as she landed on the ground.

To her suprise, she saw Griff way ahead of her and was shocked to see him way ahead of her.

"What the... How did he... Oh wait a second!" Zoe said as she thought about what she just did.

She thought about the big jump she did and about what her friends said to her while she was training.

_"Damn, that's why he's in front of me, that high jump. Stick to the ground and watch out for the trees." Zoe thought._

Then while she was still thinking, she looked right in front of her and saw a fallen tree in her eye direction, blocking her way.

"Wow, damn this is even harder than Wrecking Crew." Zoe said as she jumped over the tree and sped up.

Back in the resort, Team SSX saw that Zoe was somehow not being her confident self.

"Man, what is she doing?" Moby said.

"Remember you guys, if something is wrong, you can always contact her on your headsets." Atomika said.

"Oke I'll go talk to her." Moby said as he turned the headset on.

"Zoe, Zoe can you hear me?" Moby asked.

Zoe heard a noise in her ear and turned her headset on.

"Who is this?" Zoe asked.

"It's me Moby, Zoe what's wrong, you're doing really bad." Moby said.

"I got this race, I know what I did wrong."

"Zoe, keep your sight on the road, avoid the big jumps and watch your speed. We can't afford defeat from someone like Griff."

"Oke oke i'll do my best, have to hang up and catch up to him." Zoe said as she hung up.

"I hope she knows what she is doing." Moby said as she sighted and leaned back in his chair.

* * *

Meanwhile, Griff was still ahead of Zoe and tried to watch the dangerous trees on the road and in the sky. He avoided all of the trees and tried to focus on the road.

"Ha, Zoe is done for. She already made a mistake taking a high jump." Griff said.

While Griff was ahead of her, Zoe was trying to catch up, and at the same time trying to watch the trees.

"Come on Zoe, concentrate. Duck!" Zoe said as she ducked to avoid the tree.

She got a little worried on how the race was going as she sped up even more. But just in case, she contacted the others to ask about the situation.

"Hey, can anybody tell me how far away I am from Griff and where the finish is?" Zoe asked in her headset.

As the others heard it, they all turned their headset on.

"Zoe i'll tell you, you're 1 kilometre away from Griff and the finishline is 5 kilometres away. The last part you're at has trees on the ground and small tunnels. Keep jumping over them while speeding." Ty explained.

"Oke I'll do it, it's now or never." Zoe said as she sped up.

After a couple seconds while Griff was still trying to survive, Zoe started to catch up to him and was right behind him. When she finally managed to ride next to him, Griff saw her next to him and tried to speed up.

"You won't win this Zoe, I'll take the first win." Griff said.

"Cross the line first, then you can talk. Oh and uhh... I had a crush on you in the third tournament you know." Zoe said sadistic.

"R-Really, you really liked me?" Griff asked suprised as he got distracted.

"Pfff, no! Rule number one fool. Stay focused and avoid distraction, later!" Zoe said as she sped up.

"What the... Hey that's cheating... You... Argh damn!" Griff said as she went faster.

The two were neck on neck and then suddenly both passed the finishline. After watching the footage back and forward, it seemed Zoe passed the finish right before Griff did, and won the first Decent of the challange.

"Awh yeah, Payne won this race sucker!" Zoe said.

"You cheated Zoe, you can't distract people like that." Griff said mad.

"I didn't do anything, you're the one who fell for it, blame yourself. You really think someone like me would be interested in someone like you? Grow up."

"Oh really huh, it's like that? It's my own fault for believing your lie? Oke, oke, cool. You can have this challenge, if you want it like that, fine. We'll see what happens on the other mountains." Griff said as he pointed at her and went back to his own helicopter.

"What a sore loser, time for me to go. Damn, my armor looks awful, atleast I'm not hurt." Zoe said as she also went to her helicopter and went back to the resort.

At the resort, Team SSX was celebrating Zoe's victory of Mount Robson and already got a head start on Griff.

"Good work Team SSX, I got word that Zoe is already on her way back. This means that it's 1-0 for SSX. But this was the easiest mountain you could get, the other eight are way more difficult. Let's wait for Zoe to come back, then we'll pick our next contestant." Atomika explained as he left the room.

"You heard that, what if the other mountains are even more dangerous?" Kaori asked.

"Don't worry, we'll conquer then all, right guys?" Mac asked.

"You certainly have lot of energy in you, I like attitude." Alex said as she winked at him.

"Uhh... You think so, hehehe?" Mac asked as he blushed and puts his hand on his head.

Kaori saw it and puts her hands on her hips lady like. Elise then stood next to her.

"Don't worry, she's not interested in him, I know her." Elise said.

"I know, just got a little jealous there." Kaori said when she calmed down.

* * *

After hours of flying, Zoe arrived back at the resort. The helicopter landed and she stepped out.

"Thanks for the ride man, see yah next time." Zoe said as she left the helicopter.

"No problem kid." the pilot said.

She stepped into the resort and saw her team.

"Just tell me, who is the best snowboarder around?" Zoe yelled.

"Zoe, that was awesome." team SSX said as they approached her and congratulated her with her victory.

While she was celebrating, she quickly thought what Ty said.

"Ty, how did you know about the course, nobody of us haven't been there before." Zoe asked.

"I did, I tried all the mountains before and know how they work." Ty said.

"What! Come on man, share your knowledge with us." Zoe said.

"No I won't say anything, I could have said something to you, but I didn't want to. You guys need to ride them on your own." Ty said.

"He does have a point, wouldn't be fun if we already knew what we were supposed to do." Moby said.

"Yeah agree with that one." Tane said.

While team SSX was talking, Griff also stepped into the resort and looked furious at Zoe for what she did to him at the event.

"Zoe, you won't get away with this." Griff said as he suddenly noticed something.

He noticed that while Mac was still talking, Kaori was looking at him and too scared to approach him.

"Kaori, I remember her, she is really fast and good in racing. It looks like she has a crush on Mac. Wait a second... Hehehe I got an idea. If Zoe wants to play dirty, then I'll play dirty too." Grif said as he then got an idea and quickly went to his room.

* * *

While the team was still celebrating, Atomika appeared again and approached them.

"Hey where is Griff?" Atomika asked.

"Probably in his wing nagging about his loss, wassup Mark?" Zoe asked.

"Zoe at first, I want to congratulate you on your victorious run on the first decent. You are now 1 point ahead of Griff. Now it's time to pick our second decent. I got The Box of the Mountains and The Wheel of Decent right here." Atomika said as she grabbed the wheel and box.

"I wonder who's next." Mac asked curious.

"Who knows, I already know it's you Mac." Atomika said.

"You really think so?"

"Hahaha, no! Just kidding." Atomika said teasing.

"Funny Mark, I guess everybody loves to annoy me from time to time." Mac said when he puts his arms crossed and looked the other way.

"Yeah, you got it just right." Everybody said to tease him.

"Anyways, I'll take a look at the box and see which mountain is next." Atomika said as he grabbed a card out of the box.

"Hmm... Oke the next place is Siberia, interesting."

"Siberia? Now that's a challenge, who the one that's gonna decent it?" Ty asked.

Atomika went directly to his Wheel and spun the next contestant. The wheel eventually stopped at a green card and he grabbed it off.

"Oke team, the next one that's going to decent it, is our very own and very lovely French woman, Alex Moreau." Atomika said.

"Me, oke I'll do it." Alex said excited.

"Listen Alex, in Siberia your deadly decent is ice. The ice is as thick as concrete, and very, very dangerous. If you make one mistake, you can either break your limbs or glide down a pit. You will be equiped with Ice Axes that will help you to keep a straight way." Atomika explained.

"Yeah... Thank for saying like that. Oke I'll do best I can." Alex said encouraged.

"Great, now that it's settled, there is one more thing. Tomorrow you will all come with me so that I can get an analyse scan. I'm going to look which one of you is better at Racing and Tricking. This is no contest, just a scan." Atomika said.

"I'm cool with it, then we'll see which one of us is the best." Mac said.

"All of this will happen tomorrow in the afternoon. We'll have a Race It on your past course Snow Jam, and Trick It on R&B."

"Snow Jam and R&B, the new member should probably know that I was the Grand Master on Peak 1, right?" Mac said encouraged.

"And you probably already know that Elise and I beat you in a race on Snow Jam, right?" Kaori said teasing.

"Hahahahahah." everybody laughed as Mac leans back in his chair.

"Yeah I was right after all, everybody loves doing it." Mac said.

"Either way, for now, get some rest or do whatever you like to do. I'm out team, later." Atomika said as he left the room.


	6. Alex Moreau: Next Stop, Siberia

Don't worry about Alex and her speaking English, she is supposed to make mistakes in the English language.

* * *

That same day when Zoe had ended her event against Griff in a victory for team SSX, Alex was studying the region she was supposed to decent, Siberia. She then thought about what Atomika told her about the hazards and equipment she needed and decided to look for more info.

She grabbed her laptop out of her bag and looked up Siberia on the web.

"Siberia." Alex said as she read the forum about the region. "Siberia is one the coldest places on Earth after the North and South Pole. This region is located in North Russia. But it is also the region with the most dangerous ice peaks, craters and courses. No human alive would be able to go there, or even survive unless equipped with top quality gear." Alex said as she got a little scared and put her hand on her chin.

"Now that they say like that, I'm getting really scared." Alex said.

"Oke team, if nobody has any questions, I'll leave you guys to your own business." Atomika said as she tried to walk away.

Then suddenly, Alex ran up to Atomika before he made a move on.

"Wait wait, don't leave yet!" Alex said as she ran up to him.

"What is it Alex, you got a question?" Atomika asked.

"Yes, Zoe is done with her challenge and is taking a rest in her room. The day is not over, so can I train on Siberia today with one of my friends?" Alex asked hesitated as she tried to speak English fluently.

"Well, tomorrow you have to go with the others for the Race- and Trick It analyses. If you can promise me to be back before midnight, then you can go. You need some good night sleep after a training session." Atomika explained.

"Thank you very much, I'll ask some people with me." Alex said when she ran away to the middle of the main hall.

"Uhm people can I have attention?." Alex asked as everybody focused their sight on Alex. "Now Zoe is done with her event and taking a rest, I want to train in Siberia for my turn. I want two other people to help me out." Alex said.

"Oke cool, who do you want with you Alex?" Elise asked.

"First I want you Tane, I heard you were the best boarder in Fuji, so I want your help." Alex said as she approached Tane.

"Thank you very much, I'll do whatever I can to help you out." Tane said.

"Good idea Alex, Tane is indeed very good, who's your next person?" Elise asked.

"My second one, is someone I admired when I saw him for the first time snowboarding. I want you... Mac Fraser." Alex said as she looked at him while he was laying down sleeping on the couch.

Then suddenly, because of Alex her offer, Kaori started hyperventilating deeply and sat down.

"Alex wait uhh... Is it really that wise to ask Mac with you? Here take Ty with you, he's Lucky remember, he's a better choice." Elise asked when she grabbed Ty and pulled him towards her.

"Hey Elise let me go, I don't want to go to Siberia. I got something else to do, later dudes." Ty said when he went to his room and Elise did a facepalm.

"No thank you Elise, Mac is perfect. When I saw him on the television, I couldn't believe my eye when I see him snowboard. And there is... another reason why I want him." Alex said as she walked away.

"Oh God, hope this will work out." Elise said as she puts her hands on her hips.

Meanwhile, Alex walked up to Mac who was still a sleep and woke him up.

"Mac, Mac Fraser?" Alex asked.

He woke up slowly and shocklingly, seeing Alex that close to him.

"Wow, oh hey Alex, you starteled me, what is it?" Mac asked.

"Mac, would you like to join me in Siberia for training?" Alex asked.

"Really? Of course I want to go, finally some action for me on the mountains. I can't wait, when are we leaving?" Mac asked.

"In 1 hour, I'll get my stuff, and I see you guys at the helicopter in 1 hour." Alex said as she left while walking seductive.

"What a lady, isn't she Tane?" Mac asked while looking tempted.

"She sure is classy and friendly. I'll get my stuff, you should get ready too." Tane said.

"Oh yeah forgot, be back in a few. I'm going to get my favourite board" Mac said as he ran away. "Oh hey Kaori, I'm busy right now, see ya." Mac said as he ran past her and left the main hall.

"Oh but I... I wanted to... Oh, he just ran past me." Kaori said depressed at herself.

Elise and Kaori both got very worried about Alex and her behavior towards Mac.

"Elise, what do you know about Alex?" Kaori asked.

"Don't worry, she's not interested in Mac, I know her for a very long time. She wouldn't fall for him. Alex is probably just being friendly to him." Elise said trying to comfort Kaori.

_"Hmm... Can I trust her?" Kaori thought worried._

One hour later, Alex, Tane and Mac stood ready to leave.

"Oke everybody, we are leaving, bye!" Alex said waving goodbye to everybody.

"Good luck Alex." Elise said.

"Mac, I'm really hoping that you can help me out. I... need it very bad. Then I can tell you the other reason why I wanted you." Alex said seductive as she looked closely into his eyes.

"Uhmm... Yeah... Cool but you're kind of scaring me Alex, no offence." Mac said.

"Sorry, just the way I am." Alex said as the helicopter took off and they all left the resort.

Then again, because of Alex her behavior towards Mac, Kaori started hyperventilating deeply as Elise tried to calm her down.

"Calm down and just trust me, she is not interested in her. Like she just said, that's just how she is." Elise said towards Kaori.

"I think I just need to lay down and make my head empty. First I choke on asking him out, then I hyperventilate. This is all to stressful for me." Kaori said as she went to her room.

"Just go take a little nap, you will feel better when you wake up." Elise said. "Gosh, I'm getting worried about Kaori. She may have grown up, but she still is too nervous and easy to upset like in the old days. I'll go talk to her later on." Elise said as she sat down.

* * *

In the helicopter to Siberia, Alex was once again on her laptop before her training started. She found that the course wasn't just a region with 6 feet thick ice, but also a huge industrial park where ever you looked.

While she was busy, Mac was kind of curious why Alex wanted him to go with her.

"Alex, not that I'm complaining, but what is the other reason why you wanted me?" Mac asked.

"Oh, that is good question." Alex said as she was typing on her laptop.

"What are you doing?"

"Here, take a look at this." Alex said when she showed a video on I-Tube and turned her laptop towards him.

"What is that?" Mac asked.

"This is a video from 2 years ago, this was when you and I were racing in the Course The Paris in France." Alex said.

"You and... I? I do remember racing there, but I don't remember seeing you there." Mac said.

"Look, there are you, at spot number 8. And there is I, at spot number 10."

"Hey, that is me, and that really is you. So we met 2 years ago in a race in France?"

"Yes we have, while we were racing, I see you boarding so good, that you inspired me to get better. You finished first, but I finished fourth, so I remembered that one day, I would be just as good as you are. Who are better, then the best boarders in America and Fuji?" Alex explained.

"Hey look, there am I at the finish line, shaking your hand. So we have met 2 years ago?" Mac said.

"Yes, you see?" Alex said.

"Let me get this straight, you wanted me to go with you because I'm your inspiration?" Mac asked.

"That is right."

"Well then, I won't let you down." Mac said encouraged as Alex smiled happily.

"Alex, is good to see that you are so eager to get better than you already are." Tane said.

"Thank you." Alex said as she smiled at him.

"Hello guys, we will be arriving in Siberia in a couple hours. I'm taking you to Diamond Back course, there you can practise the best." the pilot said.

"Oke thanks man." Mac said.

* * *

3 Hours later, Alex, Tane and Mac arrived in Siberia, as the pilot went straight for the mountains.

"Oke crew we are here, this course is called Diamond Back, go out and watch out for the ice paths and the craters you can fall in." the pilot said.

"Thank you, shall we go?" Alex asked as she stood ready on her board.

"I'm ready to go." Tane said.

"Ready!" Mac said.

"3...2...1... Go, go go go go!" the pilot yelled as they all jumped out of the helicopter.

"Alex, where are your ice picks, you need them." Tane said.

"Don't worry, here they are, in my hand." Alex said as she showed them.

"Good, do your best." Tane said.

"Let's stay together for a while, then you can give me tips. Mac, how is it that you were so fast when we started?" Alex asked.

"That's very simple, before I landed on the ground, I did some trick to get my blood flowing." Mac said.

"How cool that is, I'll try it out." Alex said.

While they were racing, Alex already started to get the hang of the course and even showed that the ice was possible to ride on.

"Hey guys, where are you? I don't see you anywhere." Alex asked through the headset.

"I'm at the industrial park, where are you?" Tane asked.

"I am two, on some kind of zipline. Where are you Mac?" Alex asked.

"I'm at the crater parts, don't worry, I'll find my way." Mac said while he was day dreaming.

_"Should I do what Moby told me, flowers and candy? Would she appriciate it, don't know if she is that kind of woman but I'll never know until I try it out." Mac thought in his head._

"Mac, Mac, Mac! Stop day dreaming and be careful, those craters you are at are bad news." the pilot said.

"What, oh! Don't worry I... Wow, wow aaahhh!" Mac said as he approached one right in front of him and slipped on the way.

"Mac, Mac you oke?" Tane asked.

"Hey, what's going on, you okay?" Alex asked worried.

"Wow that was close, I almost fell in that crater. My mind was drifting off for a second and this happend?" Mac said as he continued the race.

After a couple minutes, the three started approaching the finishline.

"Oke this is the final stretch, show your racing skills." the pilot said.

"I'm already on it." Alex said while she took a high jump and did her signature trick, The Catwalk.

"Don't mind me, just sliding my way to the finish." Mac said while he did the Russian Dreidle Boardslide.

"Mac, you are awesome, you have to show me that trick later on." Alex said admired.

"Sure another time, Tane what's up with you?" Mac asked.

"I'm sticking to the ground, this is a race after all and I took a good note at Zoe's race. High jump are not neccesary." Tane said.

"Oh yeah I forget, oke I think about it." Alex said.

Eventually they approached the finish line, Tane ended first, Alex second and Mac third.

"Awh man only third, need to level up my game." Mac said disappointed.

"Yeah I beat Mac... Uuhh I mean... Don't be sad, it was a training session, nothing serious." Alex said while cheering.

"Hmph, I'll beat you next time." Mac said.

"Alex while I was boarding, you have to use straight ways and try to avoid going left or right. If you have to go either way, make sure you don't turn too much or the ice with get to you." Tane explained.

"What I have noticed is that you have to stay away from craters, that's for sure." Mac said while laughing.

"Thank you guys, I'll remember." Alex said.

"Oh wait one more thing, try to avoid railing, it's to slippy to take. So no grinding on trees, rocks or anything. Stay on the ground." Mac said.

"No grinding... got it. Come on guys, let's go home." Alex said as everybody went into the helicopter.

"Everybody oke? Mac, what is wrong with you, you almost fell in that crater. You could have been killed." the pilot asked worried.

"I dunno, my mind was just somewhere else." Mac said.

"Tell the truth, you're thinking about a girl are you?" Alex asked.

"What? No not at all, I thought about the competition."

"You no fool me, it's a girl. I can see it in you face, you like someone."

"Oke fine it is. I like her and I want to ask her out, my friend told me that I had to give her some flowers and candy. What do you think?"

"Oh that's so romantic, I know just the place for you to get it, in Paris. Pilot change course to Paris for pit stop. I have to help my friend with something."

"Oke but make it quick, we don't have much time you know." the pilot said when he quickly changed course to Paris.

* * *

Back at the resort, Atomika was still up, waiting for Alex, Tane and Mac to arrive back from Siberia.

"Hmm... Where are they? It's almost 19:00 pm." Atomika said.

In the girls room, Elise was taking a shower while Kaori was laying in her bed, starring at the ceiling.

"This water is so nice and warm, you have to take a shower to. I promise you won't regret it." Elise said happily.

"No thanks, maybe later." Kaori said as she sighted.

"Still not over your blunder from a couple hours ago?"

"Still not, the thing is, a couple year ago, I promised myself not to get easily upset and show more self esteme. Now these past days, it looks like I haven't changed at all and went back from who I was in the past."

"I know what can help you, a nice warm shower, look I got soap here and shampoo..."

"I think I'm going out for a walk, see you later Elise." Kaori said as she left the room and Elise sighted deeply.

Kaori walked down the stairs and went to the main hall, she saw Atomika waiting there and approached him.

"Hey Mark, what are you doing here?" Kaori asked.

"I'm just waiting for Alex, Tane and Mac to arrive. They had to be in a while ago." Atomika said.

"That is weird indeed. Mark, do you have more information about Alex?"

"Let me see, I had picked up something very interesting on the internet recently."

"What is it?"

"Alex Moreau is one of the best snowboarders in France, she proved that after losing a race against America's best boarder, Mac Fraser two years ago." Atomika said.

"So they already had a race against eah other two years ago? I don't think I can trust her." Kaori said.

"Kaori, why do you think that?"

"It's just a thought."

"Kaori believe me, we know each other for ages. Alex is totally trustworthy, you have got to trust me, and her." Atomika said.

"Hmmm... Thanks Mark. Since I'm not that sleepy, you mind if I wait here with you?" Kaori asked.

"But you have to go to bed for tomorrow."

"Don't worry, I'm always full of energy and ready to go." Kaori said.

"Oke, but in the morning you have to be ready to go."

"Sure, sure, I'll just have a seat here." Kaori said when she sat on the couch.

* * *

Meanwhile in Paris, Alex and Mac walked out of a store well known by Alex.

"I have to say, France has some beautiful bouquets, chocolate looks also very good and tasy... Hmmm..." Mac hummed.

"Don't eat it, leave for her." Alex said as she slapped his hand and Mac puts it back.

"Okay okay, when should I give it to her?"

"At night time, around midnight, you should go to her room and then give it to her. That's really romantic." Alex said.

"And when is that?" Mac said

"Whenever you feel like it or have courage."Alex said.

"Got it, Thanks Alex." Mac said.

"Guys I don't want to interrupt you conversation, but shouldn't we be moving on?" Tane asked

What time is it?" Alex asked.

"It's... oh no, it's 21:00 o'clock in America, we have to go. Remember what Mark said?" Mac said.

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Atomika... He said that we have to be back before midnight for good night sleep. Come on, we have to get to the helicopter." Mac said when they all ran towards the vehicle.

* * *

After hours of flying, the three finally arrived back at the resort. They quickly rushed inside the resort and saw Atomika waiting for them with his arms crossed and Kaori just sitting on the couch minding her own business.

"What time is it?" Alex asked.

"01:00 am, I thought I told you guys to come back early?" Atomika said.

"Sorry, we just had some things to take care off." Mac said.

"Go to bed and take some rest, we are leaving in the morning around 9 o clock."

"Fine we'll go, Kaori what are yo still doing here, why aren't you sleeping?" Mac asked.

"I don't know, somehow I just got worried about you three, especially you Alex." Kaori said as she looked at Alex like her rival.

Alex saw her looking and then tried to avoid eye contact.

"Well I'm tired, let's go upstairs everybody." Mac said as the three went upstairs.

Atomika walked up to Kaori who was still looking at Alex.

"I know what you said to me, but I'll only keep my eye on her." Kaori said.

"You can do that, but eventually you are going to realise that you wasted your time doing that." Atomika said.

"I got time to spare." Kaori said when she also went upstairs.

While they were walking and Kaori walked up front, Alex approached Mac once again.

"Is it her, with the pink hair up the front?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, not bad huh?" Mac said.

"You know how to pick them, she looks like the kind of woman that would appriciate flowers and chocolate."

"Thanks for your help Alex, you have been a good friend. I should have remembered you from 2 years ago."

"It's oke, if you need my help, ask me." Alex said as they all went to their own room to get some sleep.


	7. Back To The Past

The next morning, Atomika and Zoe gathered the whole team in the main hall for the analyses.

"Okay is everyone here Mark?" Zoe asked.

"Let me see, we have you, Elise, Kaori, Moby, Psymon, Tane..." Atomika said stopped looked around.

"Who do we miss?"

"We miss Alex, Ty and Mac, I don't know why Ty is late, but I already expected this from Alex and Mac." Atomika said.

"Tane how is it that you are on time, you were with them on their training session, weren't you?" Zoe asked.

"I used something they would have never thougth about, an alarm clock." Tane said.

"Oh, yeah well makes perfect sense, I'll go get them from their rooms." Zoe said when she wanted to go to their room.

"That won't be necessary, there they are." Atomika said when he pointed at them

Then suddenly, they all saw Alex, Mac and Ty running towards the main hall.

"I know for sure that I set and alarm, but it didn't go off. What happend to my alarm clock, Ty?" Mac asked.

"Sorry, I'm a heavy sleeper, must have turned it off at night." Ty said.

"Thanks a million dude, now we are late and I'm tired as hell."

"Come one, lighten up, you can get more action on the mountain. That will keep you awake." Alex said.

"Right, we are going to one of my favourite courses, Snow Jam and R&B from the third tournament. Just you wait guys, you are going to understand why I love that place." Mac said.

They finally arrived tiredly and yawning into the main hall.

"There you are, looks like you guys are too tired to ride." Zoe said.

"No no we are..." Mac said while yawning. "We are in top condition, right guys?" Mac said.

"Speak for yourself man, I want to go back to bed." Ty said.

"You're the one who turned off the alarm, dumbo!" Mac said mad.

"Stop it, we don't have time for fighting, so we have to go right now!" Alex said.

"Fine, let's go." Ty said.

"Now that we are all here, let's go the heliopter. Follow me." Atomika said when everybody followed him outside and went to the helicopter.

* * *

Back in the resort, Griff was still in his room thinking about a plan to get back at SSX. At the same time, he tried to figure out how he could win the competition.

He sat behind his desk and searched on his PC for some information about Mac and Kaori to get his plan to work. Therefore he opened a special forum about SSX to get himsef started.

"Okay, first some more info about Mac and Kaori. Like the military, I need to know my enemies at their fullest." Griff said when he looked at a special report about the boarders.

_"Mackenzie Fraser, in the snow business the best trickster in the world. However, being an average racer, Mac is known around the globe for his skills in various Tricks, and his knowlodge about the snowboard world itself. With various contests, he won over the jury with his signature trick, Walking the Dog, as finishing move. Mac is overal immature, a lone wolf at certain times, sometimes cocky and too stressed out by personal problems, this also becomes his weakness. But aside this, Mac's greatest strength come from his skills in execution and excellence, his respect for his opponents and being an honorable and kind person for the one he cares the most about, his friends of SSX and possibly love interest, Japanese boarder, Kaori Nishidake."Griff thought when he read the forum._

He then switched to another tab and opened a web about Kaori.

_"Kaori Nishidake, a Japanese boarder with a cheerful attitude, and one of the best racers around after Zoe Payne and Elise Riggs. Kaori was always one of the happiest and shyest persons you could possibly meet. Through the years, Kaori rose through the ranks and established herself as one of the best, in Japan and around the globe. Kaori found out that when she does tricks, she get an amazing kick inside herself that helps her to get faster in racing contests. Therefore she made up a trick of her own that relates to one of her favourite hobbies, dancing and listening to dance music. She called her trick the Pirouette Air Grind. Kaori is unfortunately also very easy to upset at times, it even influences her riding style. She is also very lazy and not that much of a person to practise everyday and only does so when she feels like it. This makes her easily distracted on the courses. But Kaori's greatest strength comes from her family and friends from SSX. Rumor from the third tournaments is that Kaori has a secret crush on Mackenzie "Mac" Fraser, but in an interview with Kaori, she walked away without saying anything" Griff thought._

He then opened a main article about SSX in the second Tricky tournament for more info about the team's strength and weaknesses.

_"In the third tournament called The Tricky Tournament 3, Team SSX took over the world with many talented boarders. With Zoe Payne as the leader, SSX won every major tournament and every course. From Garibaldi in Canada, to the three peaks made my the tournament commision self. With Kaori, Elise, Griff and Zoe herself as Racing specalists and Mac, Psymon, and Moby as Trick specialists, SSX was undefeated in every contest. Eddy Wachowski however turned their offer of joining them off. But even SSX had their fatal disadvantages. Even though they had experience with boarding others like Brodi, Seeiah, Luther, Nate, Allegra, Vigo, Sid and many others, they didn't had much experience of boarding against one of their own in a real competition. As close as everybody was as friends, except for Zoe and Elise with some minor differences of the leadership, SSX couldn't afford to miss a member, or else the whole team would be in despair. However, 7 years ago, one of their own, Griff Simmons, bailed on SSX as the team was in panic on how to get back on the right path again. After the panic in competitions and losing every contest they entered, SSX split up and went their own way of doing something else than snowboarding. Zoe also abandoned the team and continued boarding on her own to be the best." Griff read on the internet._

He then turned his computer off and stood on the ground.

_"When I left the team, they fell from their usual winning streak? So If I take away one member of them, then the past will repeat itself?" Griff thought._

"That's good to know, I think I already got a plan on how I can defeat SSX. I need Kaori for this. The bad thing is, I have to wait for Mac and Kaori to have a real relationship. I can't rush them into it, or they would get suspicious. When I have the chance, I'll break their relationship so that Kaori will have to join me." Griff said.

* * *

In the helicopter, SSX was still on their way to the first course they were about to take, Snow Jam. Meanwhile, Alex and Mac were in a deep conversation with each other. While they were talking, Kaori got suspicious about the two being so close and tried to get a good hearing on what they were talking about.

"So you were the Peak master, did she challenge you?" Alex asked.

"No, I challenged her, she won a lot of competitions, racing, slopestyle, so I had to prove myself to everybody else." Mac said.

"And where did you two race?"

"In the back country, she won the race, but I can't be suprised. She is one of the best racers, my specialty is Tricking."

"Interesting, what did she say when she beat you?"

"She bragged at me for being better than me, for like 2 hours straight in the ski lift, but I still liked her no matter what. We are best friends after all. I was kind of childish back in the days about losing, so I wasn't that good in admitting defeat, hahaha." Mac said as he and Alex laughed.

"Wow, you are such a sweet boy, she must be lucky with a good friend like you." Alex said.

"Yeah, I try my best. Now that I'm older, I should do the one thing I should have done years ago. Ask her to be my girl." Mac said when he looked down at the ground.

"You're going to make it, I know you will." Alex said understanding.

Kaori looked suspicious at both of them with her arms crossed and spoke up.

"What are you two talking about?" Kaori asked.

"Uhhmm nothing, just... talking and stuff, right Alex." Mac said as he winked at her three times.

"Yes, we are just talking, nothing more or less." Alex said as she winked back.

"Hope you're enjoying you conversation!" Kaori said mad.

"Hey wait a sec, is there something wrong?" Mac asked worried.

"No, nothing wrong at all." Kaori said as she took a seat somewhere else.

"Elise, do you know what's wrong with her, she's been acting like that since yesterday." Mac asked.

"She is just feeling left out and lonely, I tried to talk to her, but you know how she can be." Elise said.

Mac looked at Alex while she nodded 'yes' at him.

"This is it, wish me luck." Mac said.

"You got the... stuff?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I think it's under... Ah man, I was worried about leaving it in the helicopter, so I left it in my room." Mac said.

"Left what in your room, what are you talking about?" Elise asked.

"Nothing Elise, just something Mac and I thought about." Alex said as she took Mac somewhere everybody. "It's okay, just do it when we are done with all of this. Oh and... remember to do it at night time, then it's an even more romantic atmosphere." Alex said towards Mac

"Sounds like a great plan."

"Attention people, we have arrived at our destination, get ready for landing." the pilot said when he landed the helicopter.

* * *

The team finally arrived on their destination

"Okay we are here, this is Snow Jam." Atomika said.

"Wow, it looks so old, and abandon. It looks like nobody has been here for 6 years." Zoe said.

"Well, at least the start positions are still the same." Moby said.

"Snow Jam, so many memories. I can't wait to begin!" Psymon yelled.

"SSX, it's time to race, go to the start positions and I'll watch from above in the helicopter." Atomika said as the team tried to approach their positions.

Then suddenly, Zoe stops everyone from going any further.

"Wait before we start, let's do that one thing before we start a competition. Remember what we always did in the Tricky Tournament before we worked together." Zoe said.

"What do you mean?" Elise asked.

"I thought from all the people, you would understand what I mean. Rival pre events Elise." Zoe said.

"Oh that thing, okay I'm in. Let's stay nice, we are not rivals anymore. But let's stand next to our former rivals. Are you guys in?" Elise asked.

"Yeah sure why not, kind of missed that back in the old days. I also miss it to humiliate Moby in front of everybody." Mac said when they all went to their former rivals.

"Yeah you wish Kenzie, I was always better than you were in trash talk, that will never change." Moby said.

"Hey Elise, that outfit suits you well, for sale in the 99 cent store?" Zoe said.

"Unfortunately for you, my shoes are more expensive than your clothes." Elise said.

"Mac, after 10 years, you're still a little dwarf next to me, hehe." Moby said.

"Moby, after 10 years, you're jokes are still worse then your snowboard skills." Mac said.

"Psymon, you really need a bad, you stink!" Kaori said.

"Aahahaha, now I know you didn't mean that, little girl, hahahaha!" Psymon yelled.

"Okay that was it, Atomika, you do the start sign." Zoe said.

"Okay. Three, two, one... Go!" Atomika said when he started the race and Zoe took the lead.

While everybody was racing, Psymon wasn't done with a certain somebody.

"Oooghaaah Boohhgaahhhaaa!" Psymon yelled next to Kaori.

"Ah, stop doing that!" Kaori said as she covered her face.

Mac saw what he did and stepped in.

"Hey hey Psymon, the trash talk is over. Move on with the race would you." Mac said.

"Hehehe, see yah kiddos." Psymon said as she sped up.

"Thanks, that was really sweet of you." Kaori said.

"No thanks, come on let's..." Mac said while yawning deeply again. "Let's continue the race." Mac said.

"Are you okay, you look very tired?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright and full of energy. Let's continue the race." Mac said as he tried to speed up.

"You're right." Kaori said while smiling.

Meanwhile, Zoe and Elise took the first and second place.

"He, this race is mine, get ready for the second place Elise." Zoe said.

"In your dreams, I'll prove that I'm one of the best." Elise said.

"Ladies, ladies, you are forgetting one small little detail. The first place is mine, laters." Moby said when he took first place form Zoe.

"I think we have a common enemy." Elise said.

"While we are fighting, Moby took advantage of it. Let's show him he can't fool us anymore." Zoe said as they all tried to get behind Moby.

* * *

The race was still going on, it was a long competition with Zoe, Elise, Moby, Kaori, Tane and Psymon in the lead. They started to get closer and closer to the finishline. Meanwhile, Ty, Alex and Mac were behind the six other boarders.

"The others are taking this race a bit too seriously." Ty said.

"Atomika said that it was just analyse, what do you think Mac?" Alex asked but Mac didn't answere her as he got his eyes closed.

"Wake up!" Alex yelled as he shockingly opened his eyes.

"I'm up, I'm up, I'm racing, really. Look it me, woohoo!" Mac said shocked.

"You still look tired, let's get this over with so that we can get some rest later." Ty said as he tried to catch up with the others.

"Yeah, yeah that's for the best." Mac said when he tried to go faster.

While they were still behind, the rest was approaching the finishline faster and faster. Once again, Zoe, Elise and Moby were the one's to take the lead again.

"The victory is mine Riggs." Zoe said.

"You wished Payne!" Elise said.

"You're both wrong, I'm going to win this!" Moby said.

But right at the finishline, somebody else who they didn't expected, jumped over the three boarders and crossed the line first.

"Yeah, I won! I am number one!" Kaori said.

"Wait, Kaori won, where did she come from?" Zoe asked around.

"I don't know, she just appeared form above." Moby said.

"Kaori, how did you do that?" Elise asked.

"That's a secret, later guys, this race was totally mine." Kaori said

"Good job everyone, Zoe, I'll explain later what happend during the race. Right now, we have to wait for everyone to finish." Atomika said as he counted the riders who started to finish. "Let's see, Kaori, Zoe, Moby, Elise, Psymon, Tane, Ty... Oh look, there is Alex." Atomika said.

"H-Hello there." Alex said shy as she looked away.

"You're late." Atomika said.

"Sorry, had something else to do in meantime, but it was a failure." Alex said as she looked behind her.

"Where is Mac?"

"Right there." Alex said as she pointed her thumb towards Mac who was approaching the line with his eyes closed, mumbling in his sleep.

"Mmm... Hamburgers... Beer... Video games... Awesomeness." Mac mumbled in his sleep while crossing the line.

"Wake up, you slepped enough already." Atomika said as he woke up shockingly.

"Chicken Wings... Vegas... Kenny G! What, oh hey guys." Mac said while yawning. "When are we racing?" Mac said as Atomika sighted deeply.

"Chicken wings, Vegas and Kenny G? What were you dreaming about?" Moby asked.

"Eating chicken wings in Las Vegas with Kenny G?" Mac said.

"You have one of the weirdest dreams ever. It sounds pretty neat. Come one buddy, I'll take you to the helicopter." Moby said as he carried him to the helicopter.

"It was a cool dream though, we were just chilling in Vegas, playing poker, gambling. I won everything, then I woke up." Mac said.

"Let's just go to the helicopter, I'll try to keep you awake when we are inside." Atomika said when everybody stepped into the helicopter and went to their next destination, R&B.


	8. Amazing Discovery

In the helicopter, SSX was on their way to R&B. Everybody was waxing their board to get it ready for a ride. Mac on the other side got some water splashed in his face and got a cup of coffee offered by Atomika to stay awake.

"Ah thanks, feels much better. Still tired but I'll be okay." Mac said.

"Better be okay, these analyses are important for the team. That way, I can calculate your chances of winning." Atomika said.

"Yeah I know it's important. I'll try my best, was the race at least decent?"

"I'm not going to lie, it was a disaster."

"Awh man, why did I have to fall asleep?" Mac said with his head down.

"Just do your best at this last event and you can sleep as much as you want."

"You got a deal!" Mac said.

"Excuse me, I overheared you conversation and I wanted to let you know that we are here and we are clear for landing." the pilot said.

"Well, there you go." Atomika said as the door automatically opened and the team walked out one by one.

They saw their old course and it looked even older than Snow Jam.

"Man, can't believe it looks like this." Mac said depressed.

"We can't do anything about it anymore. You have to let it go. Come on, we have to go to the start positions." Zoe said as they all went to the start line.

"Okay before we start, all of you will show your best tricks and moves. To stay fair, you have to finish in less than five minutes, or else your score will not count." Atomika yelled.

"We got you man, go on." Zoe said

"Okay, are you ready?" Atomika said.

"Yeah!" everybody yelled.

"Steady... Go!" Atomika yelled as everybody started their Trick It.

While everybody took the first rail they saw, Mac on the other hand took the big jump he saw a couple metres away.

* * *

Meanwhile on the course, everybody showed their skills on high jumps and long rails. Mac thought about the last time he was tricking on R&B in the third tournament.

"I know this course better than anyone. Let me see, I'm now at the tunnel, now I have to take the rail that goes into the sky." Mas said as he took to rail.

He did a handstand on his board and right before the jumped, he got on his board again and did the Huge in Europe uber trick. Seconds later, he got on his board again and landed on to the next rail.

"Ha, those guys are just doing random tricks, they should know you have to mix up for more points." Mac said.

Meanwhile, the others were way ahead on Mac, doing tricks better than ever. Tane and Ty were on first place while followed by Zoe, Moby and Alex.

"Tane, you think you're better at tricking than me?" Ty asked.

"I don't think so, I know so. Tricks are one of my strong points, so don't underestimate me." Tane said.

"Yeah right, wait till Atomika tells us the score, I probably have the highest of everyone."

"Don't get too cocky, let's not forget that we are one of the best boarders in the world. Like me." Zoe said when she was railing next to them.

"Hello people, I just want to inform you guys about the score. Right now, Tane's on first place with 39 million points, then follows Zoe with 35 million, Moby with 30 million points, Alex with 27 million, Kaori with 26 million and Ty with 22 million point." Atomika said from the helicopter.

"What, only 22 million, but how is that possible?" Ty asked.

"Apparently, you have only been doing the same amature tricks instead of mixing up with uber tricks. Try not to do the same tricks, do more professional uber tricks with mix ups." Atomika said.

"That's not cool, wait you didn't mentioned Mac, how many points does he have?" Ty asked.

"Mac has 10 million points at the moment."

"Ha, only 10 million, at least I'm better than him. Maybe I should teach him a thing or two." Ty said arrogant.

In the meantime, Mac was still behind the other, but because he thought it was a trick it and that he knew the course, he didn't bother much about it.

"Only 10 million huh, I have to step my game up." Mac said.

He was getting close to the mountain area, Mac took every jump he saw and only did professional uber trick. From Handstands to Lugar Boardslides on rails, from Blackbirds and Skycrapers in the sky as uber tricks.

Atomika was watching from the helicopter, he saw Mac's points sky rocketing and noticed something very odd about it.

"That's interesting, Mac's points are getting higher and higher, yet they are not as high as the others. Could it be that he's actually going to win this?" Atomika said.

"He is a special case my friend." the pilot said.

"That's for sure." Atomika said.

* * *

The Trick It was starting to get to an end, the riders were close in the tree area and almost at the finish.

"Okay riders, you have 1 minute left, finish up what you want to do before the timer runs out." Atomika said through the headset.

"Got you Mark, I am close to the finish. How is everyone else?" Zoe said.

"Almost there." Moby said

"Yeah me two." Kaori said.

"I just finished!" Psymon said.

"I am too." Tane said.

"Good job Tane and Psymon, your scores are getting counted on my computer." Atomika said.

"Mac, what about you?" Zoe asked through the headset.

"Don't worry about me, I'm in the industrial park, I'll make it in time. Mac is out." Mac said when he turned his headset off. "Okay, this is my chance for a comeback." Mac said as he went off the rail and did the BlackBird while doing backflips.

While Mac was still busy, everybody else crossed the finish line. Everybody was there waiting for him as Atomika started to count down from the 30 seconds.

"Where is Mac, he doesn't have much time left." Atomika said.

"I hope he's going to make it." Kaori said worried.

"Walking the Doggy, woohoo!" Mac yelled from the sky while he did his signature trick and spun in mid air vertically.

"Hey look, there he is." Kaori said as she spots him in the sky.

"He has 10 seconds left." Atomika said.

"Hurry up or it will be for nothing." Zoe said.

"5... 4... 3... 2..." Atomika said but then right before he was done counting, Mac suddenly landed right at the finish, right in front of Kaori shocking her.

"You made it!" Atomika said proud.

"Hey there." Mac said as he gave a small wave.

"Hi." Kaori said back with a small wave.

"That was great Mac, good job. My computer is calculating you and the other riders their scores. We are done with the analyses, we can go back to the resort. I'll let you know the scores when I call you out." Atomika said.

Eventually everybody stepped into the helicopter, back to the resort.

"Great, I can finally go to sleep...!" Mac said as he fell a sleep on Kaori's shoulder.

"Go ahead, you deserve it, and... I'm sorry being so hard on you." Kaori said proudly but Mac was already sleeping.

"I don't think he's listening to you, he's snoring." Elise said.

"No matter, he would understand it." Kaori said happily.

* * *

Hours later, the helicopter arrived at the resort and got ready for landing.

"Alright people, we are back at the resort safe and sound. Go ahead, you can go." the pilot said.

"Come on Mac, wake up for a second, we're back." Kaori said as she shuffled him gentley around a bit to wake him up.

"What did you say?" Mac asked tiredly.

"We are back at the resort, come on, let's go inside." Kaori said when she stood up.

"Kaori wait, can you help me inside, I'm too tired to walk."

"Of course I'll help, it's the least I can do." Kaori said when she helped him out of the helicopter and went inside.

Back inside, SSX got approached by Griff with a changed attitude.

"Hello everybody, how is it going?" Griff asked.

"Alright, what is your deal Simmons?" Zoe asked.

"Oh nothing just..." Griff said as he approached Kaori and Mac. "Wanted to know how it was going with all of you, hmmm?" Griff asked.

"We are okay, why do you wanna know?" Kaori asked.

"Nothing really, I wanted to know how it was going with your personal life, like friendship, best friends, love couples." Griff said.

"Couple? What do you mean couple, Mac and I are not a couple!" Kaori said mad.

"I never said anything about you and Mac." Griff said sneaky.

"Uhm, I uh, I never implied that uhh... We are just not a couple okay!" Kaori said furious.

"Okay okay take it easy, just consider being a couple." Griff said as he stood next to her.

"I can smell your breath." Kaori said.

"Alright buddy, it's time for you to take a hike, or I'll help you out." Moby said when she stood next to Griff.

"No need for that, I'll let myself out, later. Think about it Kaori, a couple." Griff said when he walked away.

"Ha, couple, what kind of weird idea huh?" Kaori said worried.

"Forget about him. Okay everybody, do whatever you want to do and I'll call you up in a couple hours." Atomika said when he walked away with his laptop.

"You guys, I'm going to take Mac back to his room, I'll be back later." Kaori said when she went to his room.

"Go ahead girl." Elise said.

* * *

In Mac and Ty's room, Kaori puts Mac safely in his bed as she looked at him while he was still sleeping.

"What Griff said got me thinking about... you... me and our friendship." Kaori said when she sat next to him on his bed.

"You have been my best friend for ten years, I still think about the times we were just kids in the first tournament. You were always trying your best to be everyone's buddy, especially me, but we eventually became best friends supporting each other." Kaori said when she smiled at him.

Kaori looked at the time, saw it was 3 pm in the afternoon and thought she could get some rest herself.

"I think it's my time to go, and for me to leave you alone, sleep well Mac." Kaori said when she stood up and walked away.

Kaori left his room and went to her own room.

While the riders were doing their own thing, Atomika was still on his laptop trying to calculate the racing time and the trick points of the riders. But before he could do that, he had a problem with his computer.

"Damn, I have to upload the full footage first, this can take a while." Atomika thought when he started an update and sat back.

4 hours later, the upload finally ended and showed the footage from the race and trick it.

"Okay I finally got it, damn upload, I really have to buy a new laptop. Okay, now to look at the time. Kaori has got 2 minutes and 26 seconds, Zoe had 2 mintes and 29 seconds, Moby has got 2 minutes and 31 seconds. Let me play the footage of Kaori and her victory." Atomika said when he saw the footage of Kaori from the helicopter.

He saw Kaori first way behind everybody, then he saw her taking a jump and then immediately going faster and faster.

"Interesting, before the race started, she got distracted by Psymon, therefore she got way behind the others. Now she has won the race by using her intensity. Kaori has got great comeback potential." Atomika said as he turned to Mac's race.

After he was done watching everybody their race potential, he switched over to the trick it event as he read the scores.

"Okay let's see the scores of... Oh my, my God, this is... this is unbelievable. I have to go tell the others about this and fast." Atomika said when he grabbed his headset.

"Hello SSX, meet me in the main hall immediately. This is very important, it's about the analyses and I have got some news!" Atomika said when he left the room.

* * *

After Atomika's call, Mac woke up in his room.

"Awh man, that was a great nap. Luckily I'm not tired anymore, and full of energy." Mac said while stretching his limbs.

He then noticed someone talking in his headset and grabbed it to hear who is was.

"Hello, who's this?" Mac asked.

"Mac, this is me, Mark. Come to the main hall this instant, everybody is already here, except for you." Atomika said.

"Okay, be there is a second." Mac said as he left the room and went to the main hall.

Mac arrived in the main hall and sat down with the others.

"Hey, wassup everybody!" Mac asked.

"You certainly are full of energy, you okay?" Elise said.

"I took a good nap, and I had a beautiful dream of a woman carrying me all the way to some place. Right now, I'm ready for the next challange."

"That was no dream, that was me carrying you to your room." Kaori said.

"Oh, well uh... Thanks for that, I needed that." Mac said while scratching his back head.

"You're welcome." Kaori said nicely.

"Enough talking guys, I brought you here because I have important news about the analyses. First of, good job with the race and trick it. I'll show you guys why Kaori won the race." Atomika said when he played the video.

At the point where she got distracted, Atomika stopped the video.

"Look, Kaori got way behind because Psymon distracted her, but look at this point." Atomika said when she played the video until she went faster.

"Kaori did a trick to get more energy in racing, and because Elise, Zoe and Moby got too distracted with their rivalry, they haven't thought about Kaori who was going just as fast as a rocket." Atomika said when he walked up to Kaori.

"Well what can I say, I have my own way of riding." Kaori said.

"Great, now she's getting cocky. Before you know it, you're going to leave the team just like Griff."

"Nah Zoe, I'll never do that, I love the team too much to just leave it behind." Kaori said.

"That's good to hear, what about the others Mark?" Zoe asked.

"Mac on the other hand, had a terrible race." Atomika said as he switched over to Mac's race.

"Yeah thanks for reminding me of that." Mac said bummed.

"I'm not showing this footage to humiliate you, I'm showing this because I want everybody to take notes about what happend to you. Make sure you have enough rest to do your events, or this will happen to you, right Alex?" Atomika said.

"Understand." Alex said.

"With this, I mean all of you, do you all understand what I'm saying?" Atomika asked the group.

"Yes, we understand it." team SSX said.

"Then I'll keep it short. I don't have that much to say to you. Zoe and Elise are racing specialist so they just did their job, Psymon and Moby improved themselves as they both got faster than before." Atomika said.

"See, Japanese mountains do wonders." Psymon said.

"Alex is also a racing specialist, but this is not her full potential as I have noticed." Atomika said.

"Next time, I'll show full potential. Oh yeah, and what about the Trick it, how did I do that? Do I need help?" Alex asked.

"Oh about that... Mac I got a question for you." Atomika said.

"What is it, how bad did I do?" Mac asked.

"You were... still tired on the course right?"

"Yes I was, what's my score?"

"I'll get to you later. Let me got from number 9 until 1. Ty with 45 million points, Alex with 46 million points, Psymon with 58 million points, Tane with 69 million points, Elise with 77 million points, Kaori with 80 million points, Zoe with 84 million points, Moby with 90 million point and Mac with 120 million points."

"What!" everybody yelled as they looked at Mac.

"I'm sorry, I had something in my ear, how many points did you just say?" Mac asked shocked.

"You heard me, 120 million points on a course where only 100 million points are possible." Atomika said.

"How in the hell did he get 120 million, you told me he had 10 million on the headset." Ty asked.

"I'm just as shocked as you are when I saw the scores. But apparently, Mac did professional uber tricks with mix ups, on rails it's the same story. Followed with his greatest strength, his excellence of the sport and skilled execution of tricks. Unlike you Ty, you only did amature tricks like Indies and Flying Squirrels over and over again. That will give you less and less points as you progress. Try to take an example of Mac." Atomika said.

"So does this mean that...?" Mac asked.

"That's right, Mac is the best Trickster in the whole team."

"Alright, I'm the best, I'm the best!" Mac celebrated.

"Take it easy there buddy, but I have to agree with you, Mac is the best in the group. If anybody want some advice or practise for Trick Its, Mac is your guy." Atomika said as he grabbed his laptop and other stuff and puts it in his bag.

"Alright team, that was it for the analyses, if you have any more questions, you can ask me whenever you feel like it. Alex, your Race it event against Griff will begin tomorrow morning around 10:00 am. Good luck." Atomika said as he left them alone.

"Thanks Mark, see yah." team SSX said as he left.

* * *

Meanwhile, the team was free to do whatever they felt like doing.

"Well now that it's over, I'm going to my room, lay in my bed and listen to some music." Mac said when he tried to leave.

"Mac wait!" Alex yelled as she approached him.

"What is it Alex?" Mac asked.

"Atomika told me I was a great racer, but my trick it needs help. Since you are the best trickster in the team, can you give me some advice?" Alex asked.

"Sure, I'll try to explain some things, come with me to my room." Mac said as they left together to Mac's room.

Kaori saw them leaving together and quickly ran up to them.

"Wait uhh... Can you help me with my tricks too, I need it very badly." Kaori said.

"Hmm... No, I can't you help." Mac said.

"What!" Kaori said shocked.

"Listen, I know you, you don't need my help to be a great Trickster, you already are awesome. I have no advice for you to give, and nothing to teach you." Mac said understanding.

"Yeah really mean that?" Kaori asked curious.

"I certainly do, I have to go help Alex with her Tricks. See you later okay?" Mac asked as he went back to Alex.

"Okay, bye, have fun with Alex, again."

Mac looked back at Kaori who had her head down and her back turned the other way. He saw that there was something wrong with her. He then felt guilty of letting her stand there all alone and approached her again.

"Oh yeah, one more thing girl." Mac said as he taps her shoulder.

"What?" Kaori asked depressed.

"You do know that I'm just giving her some advice right." Mac said.

"Yes I do, but I'll be honest with you, I was a little jealous that you were hanging out with Alex that much. I thought you liked her more then me." Kaori said.

"Alex is just a friend, it's not like we are a couple or that she is replacing you as my best friend, no one could ever do that. It's only business, nothing more, nothing less. You're still number one, you are my number one and always will be." Mac said.

"Really? Thank you, that was very sweet of you to say, it really helped me out. Go ahead, she's waiting for you." Kaori said with a smile.

"Thanks for understanding, for that, I have a little suprise for you tomorrow at midnight. You have to stay in your room, until I knock on the door, promised?" Mac said happily.

"Oh well okay, promised. I can't wait to see what it is." Kaori said.

"You won't regret it. I have to go now, bye." Mac said when he ran away.

"Bye." Kaori said as she waved goodbye.

* * *

_**I'm sorry for not updating the story, I know how I will write the story, but I have a bad case of, Summer Routine. You probably know what it is, but basically because of that, I don't have the energy and imagination to finish the chapters. I can only give you a hint on what's going to be in the next view chapters.**_

_**The hint is: I can't believe she thought that about me the whole time, I'm done with her.  
**_


	9. Siberia: Trick It On The Big Show

In the hallway, Mac and Alex walked to Mac's room as he grabbed his keys and opened the door.

"Here we are, this is my room." Mac said.

"Looks messy, don't you think?" Alex asked.

"Yeah sorry, I was too tired to clean up. I'll do it right now." Mac said as he grabbed all the stuff from the ground and the dirty clothes with the other laundry. "Alright I'm done, sit down." Mac said as he sat on his bed.

"Okay, thanks." Alex said as she sat down.

"So tell me, with what do you need help with. You said that you wanted to trick better, but I need to know how you do it yourself." Mac asked.

"Well, I was on the course, and I did some tricks. I asked Atomika a couple times about my score, but somehow the points I received were not that high." Alex said.

"Okay go on." Mac asked while listening closely.

"I heard that you had 10 million in the beginning and at the end of the race you had 120 million. How did you achieved that, I want that score too, tell me your secret. How can I get higher points with my tricks?" Alex asked.

"Oh so, you want to know how you can get higher points with the tricks you are currently using." Mac asked.

"Yes, that is correct." Alex said.

"Let me start with how I had become like I am right now. You see, through the years while I was competing in tournaments, I wasn't a great rider at all. People always laughed at my performence and made fun of me." Mac said.

"Really, but Atomika said that you are the best Trickster of the team." Alex said.

"That's true, I wanted to get better and better until I was the best on the mountain. You know, after losing every tournament I entered, I wanted to know everything about snowboarding and how to get better than anybody else. After a couple months of hard training on the mountains and tiring myself out, it finally happend in the second Tricky tournament." Mac said.

"Tell me what happend!" Alex said.

"Just like Atomika said, I became the best Trickster in the tournament, Zoe made herself the best Racer while I was the best Showoff. They called Trickster Showoff in the second tournament. The reason why I became so good at tricking is because I forced myself to get better. Even though Atomika said it, I already knew those things about myself. Eventually I developed my two greatest strengths, my excellence and knowledge about snowboarding and my skilled execution of the tricks." Mac said.

"Excellence, knowledge and execution? How do I got those things?" Alex asked.

"You can't just get them, it needs time and experience to develop. Okay I'll get to the point, to get higher points in tricking, you need a great mix up game for your tricks." Mac said.

"Mix up, what do you mean with mix up?" Alex asked.

"You can either use three options, either trick in the air, on a rail, or on the ground. You can always start up with a ground trick, like balancing on the tail of your board. Doing long ground tricks helps to get the trick combo going. Second, you can look for high jumps and use super uber tricks, not too many beginner tricks to start off because you saw what happend to Ty, probably one of the lowest scores. There are many tricks, but the best earning uber tricks are Huge in Europe, Cradle May Fall, Blackbird, and Royal Flush." Mac said.

"Okay, those are the tricks I'm actually using, go on I'm learning." Alex said.

"Third, you can ride on a regular rail, a tree or whatever you see in the area and do uber tricks on them. The four best earning moves on rails are Sit on It, Russian Dreidel Boardslide, The Lugar Boardslide and The Skeleton." Mac said.

"Okay, I also know those moves, maybe... I didn't use them the right way, that's it! Thank you, I know enough." Alex said.

"To give you a little summary of what I told you, you have to think strategic and divide the trick possibilities, from rails, to ground game, to tricking in the air. The more you mix up and change style, the more points you will earn. Do not duplicate tricks, or your points are going downhill." Mac said.

"Thanks a lot for your help, I know how I will do my Trick it against Griff." Alex said.

"No problem, I'm happy that I could help you out." Mac said.

"So now that we are done, how is it going with that Japanese girl?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, I think it's going alright... I guess." Mac hesitated a little bit.

"What's wrong, talk to me, it's my turn to help you." Alex said.

"It's nothing really, but I think she is jealous of you."

"Jealous of me, why would she? I mean I understand that I'm beautiful and outstanding, but why?"

"She thinks that because we were spending so much time together, she figured I liked you more than her. She thought that because... we are best friends and she deeply cares about that."

"That's not good, did you tell her we are just friends?"

"Yeah, I told her we are just friends and doing business, nothing more or less."

"Great, I don't want to come between the two of you. To help you out, I'll stay out of your way a bit more after I'm done with my mountain. We have been spending too much time, so I'll give you your own space."

"Oh come on, you don't have to do that, she believed me right away that there was nothing between us. To thank her for being so understanding about us, I planned on giving her tomorrow around midnight the flowers and candy you gave me. At the same time, I'm going to ask her to be mine."

"Cool, I really hope she appriciates it." Alex said.

"I hope so to, we know each other for a very long time, it's time to grow up and move on to the next level." Mac said.

"That is very true." Alex said as she looked at the time. "Oh it's already late, I have to go to sleep, my competition is going to start tomorrow morning and I need to be fit." Alex said.

"Alright, good luck, I'm rooting for you." Mac said.

"Bye Mackenzie, thanks for your help." Alex said as she quickly left his room and went to her own room.

While she was walking in the hallways, Elise passed her on the way.

"Hey Elise." Alex said.

"Hi Alex." Elise said as she opened the door of her own room and entered.

* * *

Elise went into her room and sat on her bed, when she laid down in her bed, Kaori also entered her room in a bathrope and a towel on her head, covering her hair.

"So how was that shower?" Elise asked.

"It feels so refreshing, the bad tub really makes me calm, and the chocolate in the drawer is delicious. The shampoo makes my hair all soft, and don't get me started about the conditioner, heavenly. My problems just disappeared in front of my eyes." Kaori said.

"Yeah I know, this resort is just perfect, it has almost everything, don't you think?" Elise asked.

"It sure does." Kaori said as she walked up to her life size mirror and dries her hair. "So, what did you do in the mean time?" Kaori asked to Elise.

"I watched The Expendables with Moby, Zoe, Ty, Tane and Psymon. Silverster Stallone is so hot, but the best actor of the whole movie for me is Terry Crews. Oh hey, what I have noticed is that Moby seems kind of depressed everytime he is with Zoe. He's been like that after Zoe ended her event." Elise said.

"Really? You know, it's obvious that he likes her, but now that you mention it. Zoe doesn't seem to care much for him, she is only busy with the competition." Kaori said.

"Yeah I have seen it, she wants to beat Griff so badly after she failed to beat him on her own. It's like she has forgotten about him and everything else." Elise said.

"What do you think, should we talk to Moby?" Kaori asked.

"He needs some time alone like when he left during the movie, he didn't seem like he wanted to talk to anybody." Elise said.

"Okay sure." Kaori said.

"Now that we are on the subject, how is it with you-know-who?" Elise asked.

"It's going alright, nothing wrong and I'm not stressed anymore." Kaori said.

"Really? Because I heard your earlier conversation with Mac after Mark left. He didn't want you to come with him, and I thought that was kind of rude for him to say to you." Elise said.

"I was wrong about Alex and Mac, I just have to trust him some more." Kaori said happily while brushing her hair.

"What do you mean, what did he tell you. Come on, spill it out already!" Elise said excited.

"He told me one of the most beautiful things he has ever said to me, at first I was upset that he didn't want me with him like you just said. But then he said "Alex can never replace you as my best friend, no one could ever do that. You are still number one, you are my number one and always will be." as I was relieved and happy at the same time." Kaori said.

"That truly is beautiful of him to say, I didn't know he could think of such things. He kind of seems like the type of guy to rip it off from a soap opera. What did he do right after?" Elise asked.

"Well because I was so understanding about him and Alex, he said that he wanted to give me a present. He will give it to me tomorrow at midnight as he will knock on my door." Kaori said.

"What, he really said that to you!" Elise asked shocked.

"Yes he did, what do you think about it?" Kaori asked.

"Are you ignorant? Mac... Present... Midnight, hello? He's going to give you a present, and then show you how much he likes you by asking to be his. It is completely obvious, my Gosh!" Elise said.

"No come on, he's probaby going to give me some type of bracelent, a really, beautiful, bracelent." Kaori said while blushing as Elise saw her through the reflection of the mirror.

"Girl I see you blushing, you know just like me what he's going to do."

"Okay I do know it, I'm just excited." Kaori said while dressing up in her sleeping clothes.

"I'll stay in the room, I want to see this with my own eyes." Elise said.

"I don't know, I rather have you out of here." Kaori said as she laid in her bed.

"But I want to see it." Elise said.

"I'll think about it hihihi." Kaori said. "Good night." Kaori said as she went to sleep.

"Why are you always being like that, it's not funny." Elise asked.

"It is for me." Kaori said teasing.

"So can I see it?"

"Good night Elise."

"I hate it when you do that." Elise said as she also went to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Alex stood up around 8:00 am as she immediately got ready to start her event.

"This is it, my time to ride on the mountains and show what I can do." Alex said nervous.

She took a shower and got dressed in her usual snowboard clothes. One hour later of getting ready, she grabbed her board from under her bed and left her room, on her way to the main hall.

When she arrived in the main hall, she saw her whole team and Griff waiting for her, with Atomika up front.

"Good morning, good to see that you are not tired." Atomika said.

"I did as you please, I'm ready for action." Alex said encouraging.

"Great, the helicopters are waiting for both of you. Go out there and start your first event, the Race It." Atomika said.

"Wait, before we go, do you think we can do the Trick It event first?" Alex asked as Mac looked suprised at her.

"I don't know, if Griff agrees with you then it is fine." Atomika said as he asked Griff. "What do you think Griff, Trick It first?" Atomika asked.

"Yeah sure, do whatever you want, I don't care much." Griff said.

"Well then, Trick It first." Atomika said.

"Okay then, it's time, bye guys, see you soon." Alex said as she waved goodbye at her team.

Alex and Griff went to their helicopters and the vehicles took off to Siberia.

* * *

The helicopters were on their way to their first mountain for the Trick It, the Big Show. After 3 hours of flying, they finally started to see Siberia through out their windows and saw major industrial areas almost covering the mountains.

"Look at the park, it looks so challenging, but no worries for me." Alex said.

"You sure you can take a challenge like this, don't try to cry on your way down, this is not for little girls." Griff said though his headset to Alex's helicopter.

"Says the 22 year old who is acting like a girl. You're a jerk Griff, get ready to lose." Alex said.

"Excuse me riders, but we are finally at our destination for the Trick It, get your boards waxed and ready to go." the pilot said.

"Almost their, don't act nervous, just relax and think about what Mac said." Alex said while waxing her board.

Meanwhile in the SSX resort, the team was waiting for the stream to go live for 3 hours straight.

"Man this takes so long, are they going to stream it or what?" Mac asked.

"Don't panic, I just received word that that they have arrived in Siberia and it could begin any minute from now." Atomika said.

"Finally. I'll go get something to eat from the snack corner across the street before it starts." Mac said.

"While you are at it, bring something for me." Ty said.

"Fine then..." Mac said bummed.

"For me two, I'm starving." Zoe said.

"Okay!" Mac said irritated.

"Oh and also..." Elise said as she got interrupted by Mac.

"Okay, okay I get it. Look, for the people who want something to eat, raise your hands." Mac said as literally everybody rose their hands up.

"You have got to be kidding... Fine, but this can take a while, so when I'm back, somebody has to fill me in with the details. Let me see, 1, 2, 3... 7 boxes." Mac said.

"Do we need to give you some money?" Zoe asked.

"No, I don't need it, I've got enough money on my own. I'll be right back." Mac said as he left the building and went across the street.

Back at the helicopters, Alex and Griff were ready to start as they waited in front of their doors.

"Okay, 3... 2... 1... Go!" the pilots both yelled as they both jumped out and started their Trick It event.

Alex started with simple tricks to get started, the same with Griff. At the same time, Atomika started the live stream as it was seen on television back at the SSX resort.

"It started, too bad Mac already left, oh well his loss." Moby said.

"Alteast we are getting something he's paying for, he's rich after all." Zoe said.

"Since when is he rich?" Moby said.

"Ask him, he'll be back soon. Now shut up, I wanna see how she does it." Zoe said as Moby looked mad the other way with his arms crossed.

"My God, she is really starting to irritate me. I do not know how long I can take this." Moby said mad.

* * *

Back on The Big Show Trick It event, Alex and Griff were even in points. Alex wasn't riding like her usual self, she thought about what Mac said about mixing up your trick possibilities.

As she was finally on the course, the first thing she focused on was the big jump in front of her, she used the jump to build up her points with regular tricks. Griff on the other hand, also took the big jump, but then went to the right side to the mountain area.

As Alex had full confidents inside about herseld, she took the rail on the right side and did a Handstand while doing 360 spins.

"Only do one big trick for more points and... Jump off!" Alex said as she approached the end of the rail, jumped off and did The BlackBird while doing backflips.

She landed safely on the ground and approached another hill, she sped up to the hill did a Cradle May Fall while doing 360 spins again.

"Alright, go on Chamonix Assassin!" Alex yelled from excitement.

In the main hall, the team was watching Alex riding better than ever, and doing tricks like a true boarder.

"Look at her go, Griff is way below her, and her points are growing so fast." Elise said.

"Alex sure has changed since the analyses, maybe she learned something that day." Tane said.

"You are right Tane, this is different than before, I think I already know what she did to become like this." Atomika said.

"What is her secret, this could be useful in the competition?" Zoe asked.

"Hahahaha, it's what I said before, I'll give a hint, and it starts with Mac." Atomika said proud.

"This is Mac's work, he made her like this?" Kaori asked shocked.

"Her execution on the different situations are perfect, and she thinks before she is doing something. Maybe hard to believe it, but that's definitely something Mac would do on the mountain. That is also the reason why Mac had such a high score, he is thinking like a genius on the course." Atomika said.

"Oh come on, you're joking, there is no way she could be that good because of Mac." Elise said.

"I'm serious Elise, Mac is a genius Trickster." Atomika said proud.

"Wow, I knew he was good, but not this good. He said that he had nothing to teach me, but after seeing Alex like that, I have to reconsider." Kaori said with her hand on her chin.

On the mountain, the trick it was half way done as both riders were neck on neck. They started to approach the industrial parts of the mountain.

Alex was railing on the side of the building, doing the Lugar Boardslide. When she approached the end of the rail, she jumped off while doing her signature trick, The Catwalk.

"Okay, I have to get the final stretch of this event, I'll make it." Alex said while coming out of the industrial park and entering a tunnel.

Griff on the other hand didn't care much about this event, and only focused on his plans. He didn't care much because his plan to win the competition will be water proof and guarenteed the victory for himself, as he thought about it himself.

In the resort, Mac returned back at the resort. He tried to open the door with his hands full of snackbar food.

"Ah, okay I'm almost there." Mac said as he entered the building. "Hey guys, I'm back, what did I miss, Is Alex winning?" Mac asked.

"Oh she is winning alright, Griff doesn't stand a chance." Ty said.

Mac walked up to everybody who was watching the live stream, he packed the bags out and gave everybody their fries.

"Here you go, guys." Mac said as he gave Zoe, Ty, Tane, Moby and Elise their fries. "Here Psymon." Mac said as Psymon grabbed the bag agressively out of his hand.

"Thanks man, I'm hungry!" Psymon said while eating like a beast.

"Take it easy man, it's not like you are going to die anyday." Mac said.

He then waked up to Kaori and handed his food over.

"Here you go ma'am, some delicious fries for you too." Mac said as he handed it over like a gentleman.

"Thanks, looks good." Kaori said as she grabbed the bag.

"Anything for you." Mac said as Kaori looks suprised at him and smiled happily. "So anything interesting happend while I was gone?" Mac asked.

"Alex is beating Griff with tons of points." Zoe said.

"Really, how did she managed to do that?" Mac asked suprised.

"Don't act like you don't know, you helped her out, right?" Zoe asked.

"I only told her some things she needed to think of while doing tricks, nothing special, really." Mac said with his hands crossed and closed eyes.

"Well she took advantage of it, sit down, it is almost done so maybe you can see the end." Zoe said as he sat down.

* * *

At the the end of the trick it, Alex and Griff were at the last area until the finishline where the helicopters were waiting for them.

"This is my chance, just like Mac told me." Alex said as she went to the left side and took a high jump.

Griff on the other hand just went peacefully to the finish and finished first. While Griff had finished the event, Alex did the trick, Huge in Europe while doing backflips.

As she was approaching the ground, she went back on her board to cash in her final points and finished the event.

"Alright, that was so cool! I wanna go again!" Alex said as Griff only smiled at her and went back to his own helicopter.

"Enjoy the victory while you still can Alex, eventually, this competition will be all mine, hahahaha." Griff said as he stepped in.

"I wonder what he means with that, does not matter, time for me to go to my next event." Alex said happily as she stepped into her helicopter.

The helicopter took off from the mountain and went to the next mountain, Vapor Trail, to start the next event, the Race It.

Back at the SSX resort, the whole team was waiting impatient on the score result as the pilots of both Alex and Griff gave Atomika the points via headset.

"Hmm... Okay, okay I understand. I will tell them." Atomika said as he listened to his headset and turned it off.

"What is the result Mark?" Zoe asked.

"Well you see, Griff has a total of 71 million points." Atomika said bummed.

"Wow, not bad, but why so sad, did Alex lost?" Zoe asked.

"That's just it, Alex has got... 95 million point!" Atomika said happy.

"Yeah awesome, this event was all ours!" the team said while celebrating Alex her first victory.

"But, I think we also owe Mac a thank you, he did however helped Alex out." Atomika said proudly.

"Come on guys, I know I'm awesome, but Alex did it all by herself. No need to thank me." Mac said.

"Good, because we weren't about to." Elise said.

"That's kind of messed up. Here am I happy that we won the first event, and then you come and BAM, you hurt my feelings." Mac said while joking around.

"Anyways guys, this mean that Alex has to win the Race It event to close the victory." Atomika said.

"Don't worry, Alex is a very good racer, Griff won't stand a chance." Mac said.

"Everybody come together to support Alex." Zoe said as everybody gathered in a circle and puts their hands in the middle.

"One... Two... Three... Team SSX!" the whole team yelled out hardly around the room.


End file.
